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MEMOIRS OF 
MADAME DU BARRY 

Of the Court of Louis XV 
BY H/NOEL WILLIAMS 



With a Special Intro duction 
and Illustrations 




NEW YORK 

P F COLLIER & SON 

PU BLISHERS 



Copyright igio 
ByP. F. Collier & Son 



^^^\\ 

^a^^ 






©CI.A305503 

NO. I 



CONTENTS 

FAGB 

Introduction 7 

CHAPTER I 

The death of Madame de Pomadour followed by an inter- 
regnum — Duel between the Duchesse de Gramont and the 
Marquise d'Esparbes for possession of the King's heart — 
Short-lived triumph and exile of the latter — Choiseul and 
Madame de Seran — Death of the Queen ii 

CHAPTER TI 

Genealogy of Jeanne Becu — Her mother, Anne Becu, brings 
her to Paris — M. Billard-Lumouceaux — The Couvent de 
Sainte-Aure — She enters the service of Madame de la 
Garde — Her first lovers — "Comte" Jean du Barry, sur- 
named the ''Roue" — She becomes the fashion 19 

CHAPTER m 

First meeting between Louis XV. and Jeanne Becu — He de- 
sires a husband to be procured for her — Contract of 
marriage between the "Comte" and Jeanne — The religious 
ceremony — Madame du Barry at Fontainebleau. ... 38 

CHAPTER IV 

The Due de Choiseul — His bitter hostility to the new fa- 
vourite — La Bourhonnaise — Production of La Bourbon- 
naise a la guinguette — And of Beaunoir's Bourhonnaise — • 
Indignation of Louis XV. at these 52 

CHAPTER V 

Installation of Madame du Barry at Versailles — The Due de 
Richelieu uses his influence in her favour — The Comtesse 
de Beam consents to act as her sponsor — Intrigues of 
Mercy-Argenteau and Madame de Durfort — Accident to 
Louis XV. — Presentation of Madame du Barry. . . , 60 

CHAPTER VI 

Hostility of the Court to the new favourite — Purchase of 
the chaperonnage of the Marechale de Mirepoix — The 
Princesse de Montmorency, the Comtesse de Valentinois 
and the Marquise de I'Hopital join the favourite's 
party. 78 

Memoirs— 1 3 y^l^ 2 



4 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII PAGE 

Intervention of Madame du Barry on behalf of criminals 
condemned to death — Reaction in her favour — Louis XV. 
confers Louveciennes upon the favourite — Madame du 
Barry and the Regiment de Beauce — Lauzun attempts to 
reconcile Choiseul with the favourite 87 

CHAPTER VIII 

The two portraits of Madame du Barry — Choiseul remains 
irreconcilable — Curious letter of Louis XV. to the Minis- 
ter — Visit of the King and the favourite to Bouret. . . 103 

CHAPTER IX 

The Due d'Aiguillon — His enmity to Choiseul — The favourite 
obtains for him the post of Captain-Lieutenant of the 
chevau-legers — Chancellor Maupeou — The Abbe Terray. 112 

CHAPTER X 

Les Loges de Nantes — Alarm of Choiseul — His hopes of ul- 
timate victory based on the anticipated support of Marie 
Antoinette — Arrival of the Dauphiness — She receives the 
favourite — Mesdames incite the young princess against 
the favourite — Exile of the Comtesse de Gramont. . . 126 

CHAPTER XI 

Trial of the Due d'Aiguillon before the Parliament of Paris 
— Ccup d'Etat of September 3, 1770 — The Falkland 
Islands — Obstinacy of Spain, relying on the support of 
France — Louis XV. resolved to maintain peace — Dis- 
grace of Choiseul^ — Popular sympathy for the Minister. 141 

CHAPTER XII 

Destruction of the Parliament of Paris and banishment of its 
members — Reforms of Maupeou — Bed of Justice of April 
13. '^77'^ — Reluctance of Louis XV. to appoint d'Aiguil- 
lon to the Foreign Office— -D'Aiguillon made Minister of 
Foreign Affairs — Madame du Barry succeeds in obtain- 
ing compensation for Choiseul. «,....... 164 

CHAPTER XIII 

Madame du Barry, unlike Madame de Pompadour, does not 
aspire to a political role — Her apartments at Versailles — 
Moreau le jeune's drawing depicting a fete given by 
Madame du Barry to Louis XV. at Louveciennes. . . . 189 



CONTENTS 5 

CHAPTER XIV PAGE 

Madame du Barry unable to obtain the almost general recog- ' 
nition of her position accorded to Madame de Pompa- 
dour — Continued hostility of Marie Antoinette — Political 
importance of the conduct of Marie Antoinette — Recep- 
tion of Madame du Barry by the Dauphin and Dau- 
phiness on New Year's Day 1773 199 

CHAPTER XV 

Madame du Barry secures a judicial separation from her 
husband — Her matrimonial projects in regard to 
"Vicomte" Adolphe du Barry — His marriage with Made- 
moiselle de Tournon — Madame du Barry and Voltaire. . 224 

CHAPTER XVI 

Attempts to supplant Madame du Barry in the affections of 
Louis XV. — Madame Pater aspires to the role of Ma- 
dame de Maintenon — Intrigues of Madame Louise, the 
Carmelite, for Louis XV.'s remarriage — Theveneau de 
Morande — Le Gazetier cuirasse — Memoires secrets d'une 
fille publique — Beaumarchais sent to suppress the book. . 233 

CHAPTER XVII 

Louis XV. in failing health — La Martiniere persuades him to 
remove to Versailles — The King declared to be suffering 
from small-pox — Visit of the archbishop — Diplomacy of 
the Grand Almoner, the Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon — 
"Madame, we must part" — Madame du Barry is sent to 
Rueil — Administration of the Viaticum — Death of Louis 
XV. — His funeral. 243 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Madame du Barry exiled to the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames 
— The remaining members of the Du Barry family ban- 
ished from Court — She purchases the chateau and estate 
of Saint Vrain — Publication of the Anecdotes — And of 
L'Omhre de Louis XV. devant le Tribunal de Minos — 
The Vicomte de Langle and Madame du Barry. . . . 262 

CHAPTER XIX 

The Emperor Joseph II. in France — His visit to Madame du 
Barry — Voltaire in Paris — Death of Adolphe du Barry 
— Henry Seymour — His liaison with Madame du Barry. 278 



6 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XX PAGE 

Liaison between Madame du Barry and the Due de Brissac — 
The countess commutes 50,000 livres per annum settled 
on her by Louis XV. for a sum of 1,200,000 livres — Ma- 
dame du Barry a witness in the Diamond Necklace affair 
— The Comte de Cheverny's impressions . 297 

CHAPTER XXI 

The year 1789 — Attacks upon Madame du Barry — Two thou- 
sand louts reward: diamonds and jewels lost — Violent 
articles against Madame du Barry — Madame du Barry's 
three journeys to England in quest of her stolen jewels. 310 

CHAPTER XXn 

The Due de Brissae appointed to the command of the Garde 
constitutionelle — He is arrested and conducted to Orleans 
for trial — His bequest to Madame du Barry — The Cour- 
rier frangais announces the arrest of Madame du Barry 
— Brissac and the Orleans prisoners are massacred — 
Brissac's head brought to Louveciennes 323 

CHAPTER XXni 

Madame du Barry makes a fourth journey to England — 
George Grfeve, agitator, at Louveciennes — He obtains 
an order for seals to be placed on her property — 
Madame du Barry appeals to the directoire of Versailles, 
and the seals are removed — Madame du Barry placed 
under arrest, but liberated on a counter-petition from 
Louveciennes — Last amour of Madame du Barry. . . 338 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Petition to the Committee of General Security against Ma- 
dame du Barry — Warrant for her arrest issued — Madame 
du Barry at Sainte-Pelagie — Suicide of her protector, 
Lavallery — Interrogatory of Madame du Barry — She is 
transferred to the Conciergerie 352 

CHAPTER XXV 

Trial of Madame du Barry — Opening sp'eech of Fouquier- 
Tinville for the prosecution — Witnesses for the defence 
afraid to come forward — Closing speech of Fouquier- 
Tinville — Condemnation of the accused — Her 'execution. 366 



INTRODUCTION 

A SWEET, ingenuous face, a graceful charm of form,, 
and a kind heart, united to make httle Jeanne Becu — a 
aile publique of unknown fatherhood — Comtesse Du 
Barry and a '^left-hand queen of France." 

It is a strange tale, but the marvelous freaks of 
fortune were never more signally illustrated than in 
the historical deeds of Louis XV. of France and the 
experiences of this amiable waif, his favorite. 

Madame du Barry is often spoken of as ''the profli- 
gate mistress of Louis XV." She certainly did dispense 
the riches of the King's treasury with lavish hand ; but 
H. Noel Williams, in her thorough and conscientious 
researches into contemporary sources of information — 
n:cmoirs, correspondence, journals, memoranda— and 
especially convinced by some more recent monographs 
upon Du Barry, by M. Charles Vatel, and the brothers 
De Goncourt — finds much to commend in her career. 
Without the wit of De Montespan, she w^as free also 
from the arrogance and superstition of that lady : not 
having the refined elegance of De Pompadour, she was 
also free from her predecessor's ambition to control 
and her vindictive pursuit of those who balked or 
offended her. Even the cynical Voltaire conceded that 
she was "a good-hearted woman." 

It is impossible to blink the irregularities and sordid- 
ness of the girl's early life in Paris. In the midst of it, 
she was brought under the notice of Louis XV. by a 
scheming friend of her mother's, who managed that 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION 

the King should see her at supper with a gay company. 
Soon after, his majesty caused her to be introduced 
into the palace as the Comtesse Du Barry. Madame 
De Gramont, sister of the powerful Due de Choiseul — 
then minister of Foreign Affairs, of the Army and the 
Marine, and even considering the assumption of care 
of the Finances also — was unappeasably enraged to see 
this "little girl of the streets," as she called Du Barry, 
quietly pass into the position which she, with all her 
aristocratic beauty, influential connections and im- 
perious will^ had after many efforts failed to gain. 
She enlisted the great ascendency of her brother and 
his Court faction in an implacable war of sneers, lam- 
poons and scandals against the new-comer. 

But Du Barry was difficult to wound, because she 
was light-heartedly above all this. She bore no malice ; 
she spoke unkindly of none, — even protecting from 
punishment some of her slanderers; she cared so little 
about politics and governmental intrigues that accusa- 
tions of interference with grave affairs dropped, as im- 
possible. She readily and easily forgave her opponents, 
and even made friendly overtures time and again to 
Choiseul. But the minister, urged on by his sister, re- 
pulsed all her endeavors for reconciliation, until at last 
the long-tried patience gave way, and Du Barry com- 
plained of his persistent persecutions to the King. His 
majesty wrote to Choiseul a letter, still preserved, 
urging him in kindly fashion to treat her courteously. 
It was .of no avail. The minister continued his course, 
until he was removed by the King. Much sympathy 
has been expended upon this man for his disgrace at 
the hands of a king's mistress ; but it has been shown 
that Choiseul's ambitions had culminated in secret 
attempts "to plunge France into what must have been 
a disastrous war, for the sole purpose of. maintaining 
himself in power." 



INTRODUCTION 9 

The extravagant expenditures of Du Barry's life at 
this time were perhaps no greater than might have 
been expected in a pleasure-loving woman, suddenly 
given free access to a royal treasury. Moreover, she 
was by nature recklessly generous, giving on every 
hand — to her friends^ to her relatives, to every case of 
distress or need that reached her knowledge, wherever 
she could express sympathy or relieve trouble. That 
this was a genuine impulse of heart was evidenced in 
her later life, when, no longer a royal pensioner, but 
with greatly reduced resources, she was still a Lady 
Bountiful to her less fortunate neighbors. 

After the death of Louis (May 10, 1774), Madame 
Du Barry was exiled from the court, and spent most 
of her life at her chateau of Louveciennes. However, 
she did not escape the machinations of the professional 
friends of "liberty, equality and fraternity" in the 
revolutionary upheavals. In 1791 a robbery of jewels 
had been perpetrated at Madame Du Barry's chateau, 
and was well known throughout France. In 1791 and 
1792 she went to England for the purpose of regaining 
her lost property. Hereupon, although she had re- 
turned to her home, she was denounced as an emigree 
and an aristocrat, by an Englishman, George Grieve, 
who had been active in revolutionary France, and 
boasted that he had brought seventeen heads to the 
guillotine. 

Strong friends interceded for her, and she herself 
made dignified response to the accusation formulated 
by the Conjmittee. But in September, 1793, she was 
arrested, taken to Paris, and imprisoned; on Decem- 
ber 7, haled before the Revolutionary Court for the 
farce of a predetermined trial; and two days later, 
beheaded by the guillotine. 

This story, romantic in its vicissitudes of fact be- 
yond the imaginings of poet or dramatist, is told by 



lo INTRODUCTION 

the present writer with lucidity, vivacity, and a con- 
vincing control of evidences, that lay strong hold on 
the sympathy of the reader. For beneath all the surface 
of Du Barry's career is a refreshing sense of the per- 
sistence of native sweet-heartedness and generosity, 
whether amid the scenes of a reckless youth, the in- 
trigues of a court, the friendly hospitalities of a country 
retiracy, or the terrors of an unjust death. 




MADAME DU BARRY 



CHAPTER I 

FTER the death of Madame de Pompadour, 
on April 15, 1764, there was an interregnum 
of more than four years at Versailles. It must 
not be supposed, however, that such a condition of 
affairs was in any way due to lack of enterprise on 
the part of the ladies of the Court, many of whom 
ardently coveted the post vacated by the famous 
marchioness ; and, indeed, for some months, Versailles 
was a perfect hot-bed of intrigue and conspiracy. 

Of the numerous candidates, the chances of two 
were, by common consent, acknowledged tO' be far 
superior to those of their competitors, insomuch that, 
after a while, the latter decided to stand aside and 
leave them in undisputed possession of the arena. 

The two ladies in question were the Duchesse de 
Gramont,"" sister of the all-powerful Minister, the Due 
de Choiseul, and the Marquise d'Esparbes, both of 
whom had been intimate friends of Madame de Pom- 
padour, and, therefore, considered that they had special 
claims tO' succeed her. The duchess was not beautiful 
and a little masculine in appearance, proud, overbear- 
ing, and "spiteful as the devil," but intelligent, witty, 

* Beatrix de Choiseul-Stainville, born at Luneville in 1730, 
guillotined in 1793. In 1759, she had married the Due de 
Gramont, but, three months later, unable to endure the " crapu- 
lous" life led by her husband, separated from him and went to 
live at her brother's house, where scandalous tongues declared 
that she occupied a somewhat equivocal position. 

II 



12 MADAME DU BARRY 

and (according to- Lauzun) "desirable." The mar- 
chioness is described as short and red-haired, "with a 
somewhat misshapen nose;" but these blemishes were 
atoned for by a dazzling complexion and shapely white 
hands, of which she was sO' proud that she was in 
the habit of having them bled, in order to preserve 
their transparency. 

Urged on by her brpther, and encouraged by his 
clients, who saw in her elevation a sure guarantee of 
the continuance of their patron's favour, Madame de 
Gramont appears to have underrated the difficulties 
of her task, and, believing success assured, to have 
conducted her wooing in too masterful a manner. The 
result was that Louis XV., whose heart always yielded 
more readily to^ a prolonged siege than a direct assault, 
became alarmed, was at pains to avoid dangerous tete- 
a-tetes with the lady, and, finally, decided to- ensure 
his escape by accepting the favours which Madame 
d'Esparbes was so anxious to bestow upon him — 
favours which, it may be mentioned, had already been 
enjoyed by several of his subjects, the aged Richelieu 
and the youthful Lauzun among the number. 

Matters had actually progressed. so far that Madame 
d'Esparbes was on the point of being "proclaimed" 
at Marly, where a splendid suite of apartments had 
been allotted her, when Choiseul, who' was absolutely 
determined, that, if his sister were not to be promoted 
to the vacant post, no one else should occupy it, con- 
trived to dash Ihe cup of happiness from her lips. 

Meeting her one day on the grand staircase, sur- 
rounded by .a crowd of courtiers, he took her by the 
chin, and exclaimed in a patronising tone: "Well, 
little one, how are your affairs progressing?" 

Poor Madame d'Esparbes, utterly taken aback by 
such extraordinary behaviour, was unable to say a 
single word by way of retort, and could only look 



MADAME DU BARRY 13 

supremely foolish; while her enemy walked away, 
chuckling over her discomfiture, and related the in- 
cident to every one whom he chanced to meet. 

"The women who do. not love the duke (and they 
are many) are disgusted at the cowardice displayed by 
Madame d'Esparbes," writes Prince Xavier of Sax- 
ony, ''and regard her as a simpleton and a prude, pro- 
testing that, in her place, they would have applied two 
good blows to the ministerial cheeks, to teach him to 
give himself the air of taking ladies by the chin." 

This public insult put an end, nevertheless, to the 
hopes of Madame d'Esparbes. For a grande mai- 
tresse, she was sadly deficient in aplomb; and this 
proved her undoing. Louis disliked scandal and ridi- 
cule ; and, finding that he must choose between a woman 
who was the laughing-stock of his Court and a Min- 
ister whose services he at that time deemed indispen- 
sable, did not hesitate to decide in favour of the lat- 
ter. And so it^happened that the next communication 
which poor Madame d'Esparbes received from her 
royal lover was not a poulet, hut a lettre de cachet, 
coldly informing her that it was his Majesty's pleasure 
that she should retire to her father-in law's country- 
seat, near Montauban. 

After the departure of Madame d'Esparbes, the 
King appears to have diverted himself with the in- 
mates of the Parc-aux-Cerfs,^ varied by an intrigue 
with a Mademoiselle de Luzy, an actress who excelled 
in soiihrette parts, and what is believed tO' have been a 
liaison of a platonic character with the Comtesse de 
Seran. 

The Comtesse de Seran, who is described by Mar- 

.^For a full account of this mysterious establishment, see 
Memoir es de Madame du Hassef (edit. 1825), p. 91 ef seq.; M. 
Le Roi's Curiosites historiques, p. 230 et seq., and chapter xi. of 
the author's " Madame de Pompadour " (London, Harpers ; 
New York, Scribner's 1902). 



14 MADAME DU BARRY 

montel as "beautiful as the goddess of Love, and still 
more interesting by. her kindness and native innocence 
than by the lustre of her beauty," was a young lady of 
twenty married to a very worthy gentleman of ancient 
family, but of an ugliness so appalling ("red-haired, 
ill-made, with only one eye, and a cataract in that") 
that, when he was presented to her as her future hus- 
band, "she turned pale with horror, and her heart 
revolted against him with disgust and repugnance." 

Madame de Seran aspired tO' be one of the ladies of 
the Duchesse de Chartres ; but, as there was some little 
difficulty in the way, owing to a doubt as to the exact 
length of her pedigree — only those who could trace 
their nobility back four hundred years were eligible 
for the post — the matter was referred to Louis XV., 
who, "after listening with more attention to the praises 
of her beauty than the proofs of her noble blood," 
gave his consent, on condition that, after being pre- 
sented, she should come and thank him in person. 

We will let Marmontel, the countess's confidant, 
relate what followed : 

"The rendezvous was in the King's private apart- 
ments; the lady went, trembling exceedingly. Her 
friends were on the tip-toe of expectation; the young 
countess was to be omnipotent; the King and the 
Court were to be at her feet; while all her friends 
would be loaded with favours. The company awaited 
the young sovereign ; they counted every minute ; they 
died with impatience to see her arrive, and yet they 
were glad at her being so long in arriving. 

"At last she does arrive, and gives us an account 
of all that had passed. A page of the Bedchamber 
awaited her at the gate of the chapel, and she ascended 
by a secret staircase into the private apartments. She 
had not long to wait for the King. He had accosted 
her with an agreeable air, had taken her hands, had 



MADAME DU BARRY 15 

pressed them respectfully, and, observing her ap- 
prehension, had encouraged her by gentle words and 
looks full of kindness. He then made her sit opposite 
to him, congratulated her upon the success of the ap- 
pearance she had made, and said that every one was 
agreed that no one so handsome had ever been seen 
at his Court." 

" 'Then, said she, *it must be true, Sire, that happi- 
ness makes us beautiful, and, in that case, I should be 
still happier now.' 

*' 'Accordingly you art so,' said he, taking my hands 
and gently squeezing them in his, which were then 
trembling. After a moment's hesitation, in which his 
looks alone spoke, he asked me what position I should 
be most ambitious to obtain. 

"I answered, 'The place of the Princesse d'Armag- 
nac' (She was an old friend of the King, who was 
lately dead.) 

" 'Ah !' said he, 'you are very young to supply the 
place of a friend who was present at my birth, who 
held me upon her knees, and whom I have loved from 
my cradle. Time, Madame, is necessary to obtain my 
confidence. I have been so often deceived.' 

" 'Oh!' said I, 'I will not deceive you; and if time 
only is required to deserve the exalted title of your 
friend, I have that to give you.' 

"This language from a person only twenty sur- 
prised, but did not displease him. Changing the sub- 
ject, he inquired if I thought his private apartments 
furnished with taste. 'No,' said I, 'I should prefer 
them blue,' and as blue is his favorite colour, he was 
flattered by the reply. I added that in every other 
respect they appeared to me charming. 

" 'If you like them,' said he, 'I hope you will some- 
times be so good as to come, every Sunday, for in- 
stance, at the same hour as now.' 



i6 MADAME DU BARRY 

"I assured him that 1 would avail myself of every 
opportunity of paying- my court to him, upon which 
he left me and went to sup with his children. He 
made an appointment for this day week, at the same 
hour. I give you all warning, therefore, that I shall be 
the King's friend, and that I will never be anything" 
more." 

The expectant friends, we may suppose, did every- 
thing possible to turn the lady from her resolution; 
but, according to Marmontel, she adhered to it firmly, 
and though she paid the King weekly visits, finding on 
the first occasion that the salon furniture had been 
changed to blue, and corresponded with him in the 
intervals between their meetings, the connection never 
went beyond the bounds of friendship. "The King 
at his age," he writes, "was not sorry to have an 
opportunity of tasting the charms of a sentimental 
union — the more flattering and agreeable that it was 
new, and that it sensibly affected him without en- 
dangering his vanity." The writer adds that he was 
"an ocular witness of the purity of this connection," 
as Madame de Seran was in the habit of communicat- 
ing to him his Majesty's letters and her replies. 

The mystery of the private meetings between the 
King and the lady did not escape the watchful eyes of 
the Court, which was naturally but little inclined to 
share Marmontefs view of the matter. Choiseul was 
furious, and, in accordance with his determination to 
keep at a distance from the King every woman who 
was not devoted to himself, prepared to crush Madame 
de Seran, as he had crushed Madame d'Esparbes. The 
countess, however, warned of his designs, hastened to 
undeceive him. She was acquainted with La Borde, 
the Court banker, one of Choiseul's staunchest allies, 
and requested him to arrange for her an interview 
with the Minister at his house and in his presence. 



MADAME DU BARRY 17 

"Monsieur le Due," said she, "I have a favour to 
ask of you. You, I understand, speak very sHghting- 
ly of me; you believe me to be one of those women 
who aim at gaining possession of the King's heart and 
acquiring influence over his mind, which gives you 
umbrage. I might have punished you for the liberty 
you have taken, but I prefer to undeceive you. The 
King expressed a desire to see me, which I did not 
refuse to gratify; we have had private conversations 
and have carried on a constant correspondence. You 
are aware of all this ; but the letters of the King will 
soon inform you of something which you do not know. 
Read them; you will find an extreme kindness, but as 
much respect as tenderness, and nothing at which I 
have cause to blush. I love the King as a father; I 
would give my life for him, but. King as he is, he will 
never prevail upon me to deceive him, nor to degrade 
myself by granting what my heart neither will nor 
can bestow." 

Thereupon, she handed to the duke his Majesty's 
letters, which contained such expressions as *'You are 
only too admirable"; "Permit me to kiss your hands"; 
*Termit me, in absence at least, to embrace you," and 
so forth. 

Choiseul read the letters, and, much relieved, "pre- 
pared to throw himself at the lady's feet to implore her 
forgiveness." 

"The King is indeed in the right," said he; "you 
are but too admirable. Now tell me what service can 
be rendered to you by the new friend you have at- 
tached for life?" 

The lady accepted an appointment for a M. de la 

Bathe, a young officer who was about to marry her 

sister ; but would take nothing herself from the King, 

except a little hotel situated at the back of the Oratory,^ 

*Memoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), Hi. 64, et seq. 



i8 MADAME DU BARRY 

About this time, Louis XV. would appear to have 
been seized with one of his periodical fits of remorse. 
As a rule, these attacks began with Lent, reached their 
climax in Holy Week, and ended at Easter; but the 
present one was prolonged until after the death of the 
Queen in June, 1768. ''Advancing in years, worn out 
with pleasures," writes Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian 
Ambassador, "he appeared to seek in the bosom of his 
family the tranquillity and happiness which disorders 
would not permit of; he visited the Queen regularly 
every evening, and this princess, who for a long time 
had not enjoyed the least credit, obtained then many 
things which indicated that she would recover a cer- 
tain ascendency over her husband's mind. At the same 
time, the King showed on several occasions a desire 
to put away from him too near temptations to a licen- 
tious life; the number of inmates of the Parc-aux-Cerfs 
was reduced to two, one of whom, Mademoiselle 
Estain, requested permission to retire, and did, in 
point of fact, do so. The illness of the Queen super- 
vened, and from the first her state was considered 
hopeless. 

"Then every one believed that the King, already in- 
clining towards a reformation in his morals, would, 
perhaps, in the event of widowerhood, think of 
espousing a young and amiable wife, who would be 
able to assure him repose of conscience and happiness 
for the remainder of his days ; and this idea was firmly 
established in the public mind/'* 

Vain hope! Scarcely had poor Marie Leczinska 
been laid in her grave than Louis fell again, and this 
time lower than he had ever yet descended. 

Cheverny says that the "little hotel" was, in reality, une 
belle maison, and scoffs at the idea that the King got nothing in 
return; but then Cheverny was a scandal-monger. 

* Mercy to Kaunltz, November 9, 1768. 



CHAPTER II 

A BOUT the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., 
Z\ there Hved in Paris a rotisseur, or roasting 
•^ -^ cook, named Fabien Becu. This Becu, who 
is said to havc been a singularly handsome man, had 
the good fortune to find favour in the eyes of a certain 
Dame de Cantigny, or Quantigny, who carried her 
infatuation so far as to marry him. Their wedded life, 
however, does not seem to have been of long dura- 
tion, and, after bearing him a daughter, of whom 
nothing is known," the countess died, "leaving her 
afifairs in great disorder." Fabien had perforce to 
return to the kitchen, and entered the service of the 
beautiful Madame de Ludres, who, for some months in 
the early part of the year 1677, disputed with Madame 
de Montespan the possession of the heart of le Grand 
Monarque. Worsted in the unequal contest, and un- 
able to bear the cruel taunts and insults which her 
^'thunderous and triumphant" rival heaped upon her, 
Madame de Ludres quitted the Court and retired 
tO' her country-seat, the Chateau de Vane, in Lorraine. 
Fabien accompanied his mistress, and, in 1693, married 
a fellow servant, a girl called Jeanne Husson, by whom 
he had seven children, three sons and four daughters. 
Of the sons, Charles, the eldest, became vdet-de- 
chambre to Stanislaus Leczinski, ex-King of Poland, 
while his two brothers, Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas, 
took service with noble families in Paris. Of the 
daughters, two, Marie-Anne and Marguerite, married 
persons in their own station in life; a third, Helene, 

19 



20 MADAME DU BARRY 

became femme-de-chamhre to Madame Bignon, wife 
of the librarian of the Bibliotheque du Roi ; while the 
fourth Anne, who with her sister Helene, inherited 
Fabien Becu's good looks, settled at Vaudouleurs, 
a small town on the borders of Champagne and Lor- 
raine, now in the Department of the Meuse/ 

Anne Becu was by occupation a sempstress, but in- 
asmuch as she lived in a large and comfortable house, 
the neighbours entertained a shrewd suspicion that 
she had a more lucrative source of revenue than her 
needle — a suspicion which was confirmed when, on 
x\ugust 19, 1743, she gave birth to a natural daughter, 
who was baptized the same day, the acte de naissance 
being as follows : 

"Jeanne, natural daughter of Anne Becu, otherwise 
known as Quantigny, was born the nineteenth of 
August of the year seventeen hundred and forty-three 
and baptized the same day; having for godfather 
Joseph Demange, and for godn.iother Jeanne Birabin, 
who have signed with me. 

"Jeanne Birabine. L. Galon, 

Vicar of Vaucouleurs. 



Joseph Demange. 



>ja 



Such was the origin of the future Comtesse du 
Barry, the last left-hand queen of France. 

It will be observed that in the above certificate the 
name of the father is omitted, nor has the question of 
the child's paternity been settled to this day, not- 
withstanding the fact that it has given rise to intermin- 
able disputes between historians and a long and costly 
lawsuit.' The majority of encyclopaedias and bio- 

* M. Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. i, et seq, 
^ E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 6. 
*See p. 342, infra. 



MADAME DU BARRY 21 

graphical dictionaries, including even some of com- 
paratively- recent date, agree in giving the little girl 
for father a certain Gomard de Vatibernier, a clerk 
in the Excise, an error the origin of which we shall 
presently explain; but the theory which finds most 
favour with modern writers is that which ascribes the 
paternity tO' a Picpus monk,* one Jean Jacques 
Gomard, in religion Frere Ange, with whom Jeanne 
Becu was on very intimate terms in later years in 
Paris, and who is believed to have been at this time an 
inmate of a community established at Vaucouleurs, in 
the Rue de Chaussee, the remains of whose house may 
still be seen.^ 

Some time between the spring of 1747 and the close 
of 1749, Anne Becu^ with her little daughter, removed 
from Vaucouleurs tO' Paris, where, as we have men- 
tioned, two of her brothers and her sister Helene were 
in service. This step was not improbably prompted by 
the fact that, in February of the former year, Anne 
had become the mother of a second child, a boy, whO' 
was baptized as Claude,* and was beginning to find 
herself regarded with- disfavour by her neighbours. 
Soon after their arrival in the capital, Jeanne, who, 
even at this early age, showed promise of quite re- 
markable beauty, attracted the attention of a M. Bil- 
lard-Dumouceaux,' a rich financier and army con- 

* The Picpus monks, so called from the site of their chief 
monastery at the village of Picpus, near Paris, were Tertiaries, 
or members of the Third Order of St. Francis. They were not, 
strictly speaking, monks at all, but non-conventual members, who 
continued to live in society without the obligation of celibacy. 

^ M. Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 5. 

^ Nothing seems to be known about the subsequent career of 
this boy. 

' Pidansat de Mairobert and other contemporary biographers of 
Madame du Barry assert that this M. Dum.ouceaux was Jeanne's 
godfather, having been present at Vaucouleurs at the time of 
her birth and undertaken the duty at the request of her father, 
Vaubernier, the Excise clerk, who was one of his subordinates. 



22 MADAME DU BARRY 

tractor, and, according to Grosley, "the most amiable 
man in Paris," who constituted himself a kind of in- 
formal guardian to the child, and took both her and her 
mother to reside with him, the latter, apparently, in 
the capacity of cook. M. Dumouceaux was a patron 
of the arts, and himself a pastelist of some ability, 
which probably accounts for the fact that in the inven- 
tory of the Chateau of Louveciennes, the residence 
which Louis XIV. gave to the favourite, mention is 
made of a portrait of Madame du Barry as a child. 
M. Vatel is oi opinion that this is a copy of a work 
executed for M. Dumouceaux by one of the artists 
who frequented his house. 

When Jeanne wa^s seven years old, through the in- 
fluence of M. Dumouceaux or one of his friends, very 
possibly the Abbe Arnaud (who used to boast in after 
years of having dandled the future favorite of Louis 
XV. upon his knee), admission was procured for her 
to the Convent de Sainte-Aure, in the Rue Neuve 
Sainte-Genevieve. This was a community which had 
been founded, about the year 1687, by Pere Gardeau, 
cure of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, "to provide an asylum 
for young girls of his parish whom poverty had led 
into dissipation." But, in 1723, it had been changed 
to "an establishment for the education of youth, where 
they are instructed in Christian piety and in arts suit- 
able for women," and thrown open to "all young 
people, born of honest parents, who may find them- 
selves in circumstances in which they are in danger 
of ruin."^ 

This is, of course, ridiculous, as we have shown that Joseph 
Demange was the parrain of Jeanne Becu and that Vaubernier 
was a myth ; and we mention it merely as an instance of the 
amount of credence to be placed in the testimony of these 
chroniclers. 

^ Hurtaut's Dictionnaire de la -ville de Paris ef ses environs 
(Paris, 1777), i. 413. Tableau de I'humanite et de la hienfaisance, 
1769, by Alletz, cited by M. Vatel. 



MADAME DU BARRY 23 

The nuns, who followed, in a modified form, the 
regulations of Saint Augustin, and entitled themselves 
"adoratrices du sacre cceur de Jesus/' numbered fifty- 
three, of whom, ten were lay-sisters ; they provided ac- 
commodation for forty pupils, who paid from 250 to 
300 livres a year and certain extras, and also admitted, 
at an annual charge of 500 livres, ladies who wished 
to use the convent as a temporary retreat. 

On the vv^hole, the life was not austere, but conven- 
tual habits were very strictly observed. The pupils 
rose at five; at seven, they attended mass in a private 
chapel built for the use of the convent ; at eleven, they 
dined on plain but sufficient food; and at nine, they 
retired to their dormitories. The costume was severe 
and simple. On the head each little girl wore a black 
woolen hood, with a band of coarse cloth bound tightly 
across the forehead, a plain frock of white Aumale 
serge, an unstarched veil, and shoes of yellow calf 
fastened with cords of the same. Playfulness, jesting, 
raillery, affectation, and even loud laughter were for- 
bidden and punished. The curriculum, besides instruc- 
tion in religious duties, included reading, writing, 
drawing, needlework, embroidery, and housekeep- 
mg. 

To this convent, then, Jeanne was sent, "with two 
pairs of sheets and six towels," and here she remained 
until she was fifteen; at least we hear no more of 
her until the early part of 1759. Of her life there 
nothing is known, except that she would appear to 
have received a tolerable education. Her spelling and 
her grammar are ridiculed by writers like Pidansat de 
Mairobert, but, as M. Vatel very justly points out, in 
those days few ladies knew how to spell correctly; 
and the grandes dames who reproached Richelieu with 

* Constitution des religieuses de Sainte-Aure, suivant la regie de 
Saint-Augustin (Paris, 1786), cited by the Goncourts. 



24 MADAME DU BARRY 

his infidelities wrote ''Vous ne mime phi."'''' ''With 
the exception of the letters addressed to Henry Sey- 
mour/^ and which appear to have been UxCtated by 
ardent passion," he says, "her style is dull or, as she 
called it, terre-d-terre. What must be borne in mind 
from the letters verified as hers is that she received 
and retained a certain amount of intellectual culture, 
which could have been acquired only at Sainte-Aure. 
We find her expressing an opinion on Nero, whose 
cruelties she considered to have been exaggerated ; on 
Lovelace, &c. She read Cicero and Demosthenes, and 
had a great love for Shakespeare, translated, of course, 
since she professed herself unacquainted with the 
English language. She had learned how to draw, and 
founded a prize for the pupils at the School of Draw- 
ing opened by M. de Sartines. This little accomplish- 
ment ought also to be placed to the credit of the edu- 
cation she received at the convent.""' 

Nor were the years spent at Sainte-Aure without 
their efTect upon Jeanne's character. The curriculum, 
as we have said, included instruction in household 
management; and, even in the midst of her greatest 
prodigality, when she was squandering the public 
money with both hands on an army of jewellers, 
dressmakers, milliners, and bric-a-brac dealers, she 
never forgot the lessons of her childhood. She kept 
a daily account of her expenses ; she carefully checked 
every item in the bills of her tradesmen ; she exercised 
as keen a supervision over her household as the wife 
of any bourgeois; and when in London, in 1792, we 

" Madame de Pompadour, who was one of the most accom- 
plished women of her time, never seemed able to distinguish 
between the possessive pronoun se and the demonstrative ce, and, 
like Louis XV., was in the habit of adding an ^ to the third 
person plural of verbs ; while the orthography of Madame Geof- 
frin, who kept a literary salon, was a thing to marvel at. 

" See p. 294, et sequ., infra. 

*^ Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 27. 



MADAME DU BARRY 25 

find her writing- instructions to her steward to make 
jam O'f all the fruit grown at Louveciennes. 

Again, as with Madame de Montespan, the traces of 
her early religious education remained ineffaceable, 
and throughout her life she manifested the most pro- 
found respect for the forms and ceremonies of the 
Church. She built a private chapel in her hotel at Ver- 
sailles, another at Saint- Vrain, a third at Louvecien- 
nes, where the services were conducted by a Recollect, 
who came from Saint-Germain expressly for the pur- 
pose. She enriched the Church at Louveciennes by 
gifts of candles, pictures, and ornaments of all kinds. 
Banished to the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames after the 
death of Louis XV., she speedily conciliated the abbess, 
Madame de Fontenille, who had been strongly preju- 
diced against her, and made so many friends among 
the nuns that her enemies accused her of a hypocritical 
simulation of devotion. Finally, in 1792, she gave 
shelter, at no small risk to herself, to the Abbe de 
Jorre, the Abbe de Roche-Fontenille, nephew of the 
Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames, and a number of other 
persecuted ecclesiastics. 

On leaving the convent, Jeanne went to live with 
her mother, who had some years previously married a 
man named Nicolas Rangon, described in the marriage 
certificate as **a domestic," and now resided in the 
Rue Neuve Saint-Etienne, If we are to believe the 
Goncourts, the family were in great poverty, and the 
little girl was compelled to earn a precarious livelihood 
by peddling haberdashery, sham jewellery, and other 
trifles "that people buy for the sake of the heaiix 
yeux of the seller,'^ about the streets, and that, while 
engaged in this occupation, she fell a victim to the 
Comte de Genlis/'one of the most fascinating libertines 
of the age/' who, in after years, v/as profoundly aston- 



26 MADAME DU BARRY 

ished to recognize in the mistress of Louis XV. a little 
girl of the streets whom his valet-de-chambre had once 
brought him." 

The account, however, which the Goncourts give of 
Jeanne's early life is, for the most part, based on very 
untrustworthy evidence, and must be regarded with 
suspicion, and the earliest authentic information which 
we have of the future favourite after her admission 
to Sainte-Aure is in the spring of 1759, when she 
makes her appearance in a somewhat singular con- 
nection. 

On April 18, 1759, Anne Becu, or Rangon, as she 
now was, accompanied by her daughter, who, it may 
be mentioned, also' called herself Rancon, and gave her 
age as fourteen and a half, though she was within 
four months oi completing her sixteenth year, pre- 
sented herself before Charpentier, the commissary of 
police for their quarter, to lodge a complaint, and 
demand protection, against the widow Lametz, or 
Lameth, dressmaker, of the Rue • Neuve des Petits- 
Champs. It appeared that Madame Rancon and 
Jeanne had made the acquaintance of the widow's son, 
who w^as a coiifeiir de dames at the house of a Madame 
Peugevin, where Helene Becu, Anne's sister, was 
employed as femme-de-chambre, and which young 
Lametz used to visit in his professional capacity. 
Madame Rangon suggested that Lametz should give 
a few lessons in his art to her daughter, which, as may 
be supposed, he was willing enough to do, and hence- 
forth seems tO' have spent the greater part of his time 
at the Rangons' house. 

After the lessons had continued for some months, 

with - great satisfaction to all parties concerned, the 

young man's frequent absences from home began to 

arouse the suspicions of his mother, who caused in- 

^ E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 12. 



MADAME DU BARRY 27 

quiries to be made, with the result that one fine day 
she called upon Madame Rangon, overwhelmed her 
with reproaches and insults, and concluded by threat- 
ening to denounce both her and Jeanne to the cure 
of the parish for compassing the moral and material 
ruin of her son. This was a menace not to be treated 
lightly, as in those days the parochial clergy were 
invested with considerable powers, and the police were 
in the habit of committing persons to prison on their 
application," and, consequently, Madame Rangon lost 
no time in invoking the protection of the commissary 
of her quarter. 

The affair does not appear to have proceeded any 
further, though a lengthy proces-verhal was drawn up', 
which, in later years, was brought to light and fur- 
nished the enemies of the future Comtesse du Barry 
with one of their favourite weapons. 

Shortly after the Lametz episode, Jeanne became 
lady's companion, or femme-de-chamhre, to the widow 
of a farmer-general named La Garde, who resided at 
a villa called the Cour-Neuve, in the suburbs of Paris. 
Pidansat de Mairobert, the chronicler in whom the 
Goncourts repose such misplaced confidence, asserts 
that she was indebted for this post to the Picpus monk, 
Gomard, whom most writers now believe to be the 
father of Jeanne, but whom he metamorphosec into her 
paternal uncle. Gomard had now entered the priest- 
hood, and, according to Pidansat, had been appointed 
private chaplain to Madame de la Garde; but M. 
Vatel, who carefully examined the papers of the La 
Garde family, declares that he was never in any way 
connected with it. 

" On the other hand, the police appear to have exercised a 
very strict supervision over the conduct of the clergy, both 
regular and secular, and to have promptly brought any irregular- 
ities which they discovered to the notice of the ecclesiastical 
authorities. 



28 MADAME DU BARRY 

M. Vatel's researches enabled him to demoHsh an- 
other fiction, which had long obtained credence. The 
stoiy went that Madame de la Garde had two sons, 
both young men, residing with her, that the lads fell 
in love with Jeanne and quarrelled violently about her, 
and that, in order to restore tranquillity, their mother 
was compelled to turn her out of the house. 

M. Vatel says that Madame de la Garde certainly 
had twO' sons, Nicolas and Frangois Pierre, but they 
were not romantic youths, but middle-aged and 
married men, occupying responsible positions, Nicolas 
being, like his father before him, a farmer-general, 
and Francois Pierre a mattre des requites. Moreover, 
they did not reside with their mother, but had separate 
establishments of their own, the elder living in the 
Place Louis-le-Grand and the younger in the Rue 
Neuve du Luxembourg."^ 

From demoiselle de compagnie Jeanne became 
demoiselle de boutique. Towards the close of the year 
1760, or at the beginning of 1761, she left Madame de 
la Garde, and was apprenticed by her parents — ap- 
parently under the name of Mademoiselle Lange, or 
I'Ange — ^to a man-milliner called Labille, in the Rue 
Neuve des Petits-Champs.** In establishments of this 
kind pretty girls were exposed to endless temptations, 
and it would have needed one of much more austere 
virtue than poor Jeanne to have successfully resisted 
the assaults of the gilded youths, who, under the pre- 
text of purchasing lace ruffles, cravats, and so forth, 
frequented the shop and "ogled the demoiselles from 
morn till eve." That she had several lovers at this 

'" Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 41, et seq. 

"And not in the Rue Saint-Honore, where so many writers 
have located it.^ The account given by the Goncourts of Madame 
du Barry passing the shop on her way to the scaffold in 1793, 
and gazing pathetically up at the girls crowding to the windows 
to catch a glimpse of the ex-milliner, is a myth. 



MADAME DU BARRY 29 

time is not disputed, though none of them seem to 
have been of sufficient social importance to call for the 
attention of contemporary writers. 

Jeanne does not appear to have remained long at 
Labille's shop, and little is known of her life during the 
next two or three years, in which some writers assert 
that she sank so low as to become a woman of the 
town, and even for a time an inmate of an establish- 
ment kept by a notorious entremetteuse called I.a 
Gourdan. M. Vatel discusses this very unpleasant 
question at considerable length, and his conclusion is 
that the charge is devoid of foundation and was a 
mere invention of the Choiseul party, about whose 
methods of warfare we shall have occasion to speak 
hereafter." The register of loose women, he says, 
was kept by the police with minute exactitude, but 
it contains no name resembling any of those by which 
Jeanne Becu was at different periods known. More- 
over when in 1776 the woman Gourdan, having been 
indiscreet enough to allow the wife of a magistrate 
tO' make assignations at her house, was haled before 
the Tournelle, or Criminal Court of the Parliament 
of Paris, the ledger containing the names of all her 
pensionnaires for many years past was impounded. 
M. Vatel is of opinion that if Madame du Barry's 
had appeared therein, it would have been made known, 
as she was then in disgrace, and no one was interested 
in defending her."^^ 

Upon so very delicate a subject we naturally prefer 

'" Sara Goudard, in her Remarques sur les Anecdotes concernant 
Madame du Barry, relates that in the early days of Jeanne's 
favour, when the Choiseul party were making desperate efforts 
to prevent her presentation at Court, a stranger came to La 
Gourdan and offered her a large sum of money if she would 
publicly attest that the new favourite had been one of her pen- 
sionaires, but that the woman refused, " as she would not con- 
sent to publish such a lie." 

^ Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 57, et seq. 



30 MADAME DU BARRY 

not to dwell, and will, therefore, merely remaik that 
M. Vatel, in his zealous championship of Madame du 
Barry, appears to entirely ignore the possibility that a 
person who is known to have lost at least th^'ce aliases 
might very well have had others which have escaped 
the notice of historians. 

But if, for lack of evidence, we must acquit Jeanne 
Becu of having been a woman of the town, there can be 
no possible doubt that during these years she had be- 
come one of those who, as M. Vatel delicately ex- 
presses it, "ignore the obligations of virtue without 
having the excuse of passion"; in other words, that 
she was a femme entretenue in the very fullest accep- 
tation of the term. According to Soulavie^ — not, how- 
ever, a writer in whom much confidence is now re- 
posed — a M. Lavauvenardiere; was the first amant 
en tUre of the lady; while other chroniclers mention 
an Abbe de Bonnac, a Colonel de Marcieu, and a M. 
Duval, a clerk in the Marine, as among her pro- 
tectors. 

Towards the close of 1763, Jeanne, who now called 
herself Mademoiselle Beauvarnier, or Beauvernier, 
seems to have been in the habit of frequenting a 
gambling-house in the Rue de Bourbon, kept by a 
"Marquise" Duquesnoy — gambling-houses were the 
favourite haunt of the fllles gatantes of those days— 
and it was here apparently that she encountered Jean 
du Barry, the man with whose assistance she was 
one day to rise "from the dregs to the zenith of her 
profession." 

Jean du Barry, who was at this time in his fortieth 
year, was a member of an old family in Languedoc, 
which traced its descent back to the beginning of the 
fifteenth century. His father, Antoine du Barry, had 
been a brave soldier, who had served with distinction 
in the War of the Spanish Succession and retired from 



MADAME DU BARRY 31 

the army with the Cross of Saint-Louis. Married in 
1748 to a Mademoiselle de Verongrese, "a handsome 
and honest person, who had nothing to say to the 
shameful conduct of her husband," Jean speedily 
wearied of his wife and the monotony of provincial 
life, and, two years later, came tO' Paris, calling him- 
self the Comte du Barry-Ceres, though he had no 
claim whatever to any title. Endowed with a hand- 
some presence, imperturbable assurance, a ready wit,^' 
and an amusing Gascon accent, he succeeded in mak- 
ing a favourable impression on the Marquis de 
Rouille, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, and was 
despatched on secret missions to England, Germany, 
and Russia. Rouille, however, resigned office in 1757, 
and his successors, Bernis and Choiseul, turned a deaf 
ear tO' Du Barry's applications for further employ- 
ment, though, as some compensation for the forced 
abandonment of his diplomatic ambitions, he con- 
trived to obtain contracts both for the army and navy, 
and an interest in the supply of provisions to the 
troops of Corsica. 

With the profits of his contracts he plunged into 
all kinds of debauchery and dissipation, and the in- 
famy of his life was such as to astonish even the 
depraved society amid which he moved and earn for 
him the sobriquet of the ''Roue." From the police 
reports of the time it would appear that he was in the 
habit of introducing young beauties of humble station 
— generally unfortunate girls whom he had himself 
seduced and then grown weary of — to the haunts of 

^^ One day at Spa, Jean du Barry was keeping a faro bank and 
watching very closely to avoid being cheated. He appeared to 
entertain some suspicion of the Electress Dowager of Saxony, 
who was one of the players, and the princess expressed her 
amazement that he should believe her capable of any irregularity. 
"A thousand pardons, Madame," exclaimed Du Barry. " My 
suspicions could not possibly refer to you. You royal personages 
never cheat for anything but crowns." 



32 MADAME DU BARRY 

fashionable vice, in the expectation of their attracting 
the attention of some wealthy libertine, in which event 
Du Barry seldom failed to reap a substantial profit 
from his speculation. Madame du Hausset tells us that 
on one occasion, during the regime of Madame de Pom- 
padour, he had aspired to provide Louis XV. with a 
mistress, in return for which service he had the imper- 
tinence to demand the post of Minister to Cologne. 

^'I went one day to the comedy at Compiegne," she 
says, "and Madame (de Pompadour) having put some 
questions to me about the play, inquired if there were 
many people present, and whether I had not remarked 
a very pretty young lady. I replied that there was, 
in fact, in a box near mine, a young woman who was 
surrounded by all the young gentlemen of the Court. 
She smiled and said : 'That was Mademoiselle Doro- 
thee ; she has been this evening to sup with the King, 
and will go to-morrow to the chase. You are aston- 
ished to see me so well informed, but I know still 
more. She was brought here by a Gascon, whose 
name is Du Barre or Du Barry, and who is the greatest 
scoundrel in France. He founds his hopes on the 
charms of Mademoiselle Dorothee, which he imagines 
the King will not be able to resist. She is really very 
pretty. I have had an opportunity of seeing her in 
my garden, to which they brought her under pretext 
of taking a stroll. She is the daughter of a water- 
carrier at Strasburg, and her adorer demands, to begin 
with, to be made Minister at Cologne.' "'" 

This intrigue was promptly nipped in the bud by 
Lebel, the King's confidential valet-de-chamhre , who 
had the management of his royal master's love-affairs, 
and had no mind to allow a stranger to usurp his 
functions; and M. du Barry and his protegee were 
compelled to return to Paris empty-handed. 

^Memoires de Madame du Hausset (edit. 1891), p. 62. 



MADAME DU BARRY 33 

The ''Roue," struck by Jeanne's beauty, "invited 
her to take charge of his house and do the honours 
of it," as he himself euphemistically expresses it.^ She, 
on her part, we may well believe, was ready enough 
to entertain his proposal, as he enjoyed the reputation 
of being exceedingly liberal to the ladies whom he 
honoured with his attentions, and was said to ''cover 
them with gold and diamonds" ;^ and Jeanne's partiality 
for jewellery amounted to an absolute passion — a 
passion which was one day to bring her to the guil- 
lotine. 

Mademoiselle Beauvarnier and her mother accord- 
ingly took up their residence with Du Barry, at his 
house in the Rue Neuve Saint-Eustache, whence tliey 
subsequently removed to one in the Rue de Jussieu. 
The presence of Madame Rangon was presumably in- 
tended to disguise the nature of the relations which 
existed between her daughter and the "count," but, if 
such were the object in view, it would not appear to 
have been attained, as the following entry in the 
Journal de la Police will testify: 

"December 14, 1764.— The Marquis du Barry, who 
was respousible for having brought la belle Dorofhee^ 
from Strasburg to Paris, and for having given the 
demoiselle Beauvoisin her start in life, exhibited last 
Monday, in his box at the Comedie Italienne, the 
demoiselle Veauvernier (sic), his mistress. She is a 
person nineteen years old, tall, well-made, and of dis- 
tinguished appearance, with a very pretty face. No 
doubt he intends to dispose of her ( brocanter) advan- 
tageously. When he begins to weary of a woman, he 
invariably has recourse to this expedient. But, at the 
same time, it must be admitted that he is a connoisseur, 
and that his merchandise is always salable." 

^ Letter of Jean du Barry to Malesherbes. 

^ Manuel's La Police devoilee, i. 231. ^ See p. 24, supra. 



34 MADAME DU BARRY 

Soon after Jeanne became Du Barry's mistress her 
name underwent a third modification. The ''Roue'' 
considered that Beauvarnier was not a sufficiently aris- 
tocratic patronymic, so he transformed it into Vau- 
bernier, with a territorial prefix, and the young lady 
became Mademoiselle de Vaubernier/* 

Of Jeanne's life with the ''Roue" we have few de- 
tails. Montigny tells us that she never went out on 
foot, but drove about in a coach, accompanied by two 
children, "who were not her own," but whom all the 
tradesmen with whom she dealt declared "qu'elle tenoit 
dans la plus grande decencef'''^ From the police reports 
we learn that she was on terms of great intimacy with a 
certain Comtesse La Rena, described as "a married 
woman living apart from her husband, and enjoying 
an income of about 25,000 livres, the proceeds of her 
galanteries, principally with Milord Marche,^* who had 
conceived so violent a passion for her that he had lived 
with her seven years in England" f while she also fre- 
quented the house of a Mademoiselle Legrand, a 
courtesan who affected literary society, and whom 
Dumouriez, in his Memoir es, compares to Ninon de 

^* She also appears to have been known as Mademoiselle I'Ange, 
" on account of her celestial face," says Lauzun, and, on occa- 
sion, to have masqueraded as her protector's wife. Thus, in 
May 1767, we find her laying a complaint before a police-coni- 
missary against a dressmaker nam'ed Etienne, who had appro- 
priated a piece of Indian muslin which had been s'ent her to make 
into a gown, and used abusive language and threats towards the 
"Roue's" son, Adolphe, who had been deputed to remonstrate 
with her. In this document we find the lady styling herself 
" Dame Jeanne de Vaubernier, spouse of Messire Jean Comte du 
Barry." _ 

^Les illustres victimes vengees. 

^® William Douglas, Earl of Marche, afterwards fourth Duke 
of Queensberry, the notorious " Old Q." 

^ " I have had Lord Marche and the Rena here for one night, 
which does not raise my reputation in the neighbourhood." — ■ 
Horace Walpole to Conway, September 9, 1762. 



MADAME DU BARRY 35 

TEnclos. Here she was in the ha.bit of meeting a 
circle of wits and men of letters: Crebillon His — the 
author of some of the most licentious romances ever 
penned, one of which, Le Sopha, sO' shocked Madame 
de Pompadour's sense of propriety that she caused 
him to be banished from Paris — Colle, Guibert, and 
Favier. 

At Du Barry's own house, too, Jeanne became ac- 
quainted with several of the most celebrated person- 
ages of her time, for the ''Rovief' consummate scoun- 
drel though he was, was, notwithstanding, a man of 
considerable attainments and charm of manner, and 
an admirable host. Among his visitors were that ever- 
green sinner, the Due de Richelieu, the Due de Duras, 
his alter ego the Due de Nivernais, whom Lord Ches- 
terfield held up as a model for his son to form himself 
upon,''^ and the Prince de Ligne, whose connection 
with the lady is interesting, if only for the striking 
portrait which he has left us of her : 

"She is tall, well-made, ravishingly fair, with an 
open forehead, fine eyes, pretty lashes, an oval face 
with little moles upon her cheeks, which only serve to 
enhance her beauty, an aquiline nose, a laughing 
mouth, a clear skin, and a bosom with which most 
would be wise to shun comparison,"^' 

Another celebrity whose acquaintance "Mademoi- 
selle de Vaubernier" made at this time was that senti- 

^ " I send you here enclosed a letter of recommendation to the 
Duke of Nivernais, the French Ambassador at Rome, who is, in 
my opinion, one of the prettiest men I ever knew in my life. 
I do not know a better model for you to form yourself upon ; 
pray observe and frequent him as much as you can. He will 
show you what manners and graces are." — Letter of July 6, 1749. 

^^ Here is another contemporary portrait of the lady : " Madame 
du Barry was truly pretty; beautiful head, beautiful eyes, beauti- 
ful hair of an ashen grey hue; beautiful, rounded arms and 
divine hands; her enchanting smile charmed every one." — 
Souvenirs de Jeanne Etienne Despreaux, p. 14. 

Memoirs — 2 Vol. 2 



36 MADAME DU BARRY 

mental libertine, the Due de Lauzun. Lauzun, who 
was then in quest of consolation for his rejection at 
the hands of the beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury, met 
Jeanne at one of the Opera balls and accepted an in- 
vitation from the ''Roue" tO' sup at his house, where 
his host, who was suffering from inflammation of the 
eyes, received him in a superb rohe-de-chamhre , with 
his hat on his head, to keep in place two baked apples, 
which some quack had recommended as a remedy for 
his complaint. The house was in good taste, and 
among the guests were several very pretty women, 
one of whom, a Madame de Fontanelle, "had come 
fromi Lyons with the design of becoming the mistress 
of the King, and of the first person who might ask 
her in the interim." Mademoiselle de Vaubernier was 
very gracious to Lauzun, who expresses his conviction 
that she would have been *'more than willing" to con- 
sider any proposal he might have cared to make. 
However, the affair went no further than a flirtation.^" 
Scandal, indeed, attributes several lovers to Jeanne 
during this period — the Comte de Fitz-James, a M. 
d'Aicambal, a rich financier, and Radix de Sainte-Foy, 
Treasurer of the Marine,"*^ are among those upon 
whom she is reported to have bestowed her favours; 
while Senac de Meilhan says that it soon became quite 
le hon air "to have supped at least with her." These 

^^Memolres du Due de LauBun (edit 1858), p. 78. 

^"January 29, 1768. — . . . The demoiselle Beauvarnier, mis- 
tress, or rather vache a hit, of the sieur du Barry. It is M. de 
Sainte-Foy, Treasurer of the Marine, whom this last-named 
person is at present engaged in * fleecing,* under the good pleasure 
of the sieur du Barry." — Etat des femmes et filles galantes, cited 
by M. Vatel. 

When Madam'e du Barry became the mistress of Louis XV., 
that monarch is said to have remarked to the Due de Noailles, 
" I am^ told that I have succeeded M. de Sainte-Foy." To which 
the witty courtier retorted, *' Just as your Majesty succeeded 
Pharamond," implying that there had been a good many others 
in between. — Sismondi's Histoire des Frangais, xxix, 401. 



MADAME DU BARRY Z7 

suppers, with a little game of lansquenet, brelan, or 
passe-passe to follow, must, we fear, have proved 
somewhat costly experiences for the lady's admirers, 
and the ^'Roue'' had, no doubt, good reason to con- 
gratulate himself upon his bargain. However, as the 
next chapter will show, the time was not far distant 
when Jeanne was to establish infinitely greater claims 
upon the gratitude of her scoundrelly protector. 



CHAPTER III 

A GREAT deal of conflicting evidence exists in 
regard to the first meeting of Louis XV. and 
Jeanne Becu. The general opinion of their 
contemporaries appears to have been that the lady's 
charms were brought to his Majesty's notice by the 
valet-de-chambre Lebel, the indefatigable purveyor of 
the Parc-aux-Cerfs, at the solicitation of the ''Roue/' 
According to one story, Lebel invited Jeanne, Radix 
de Sainte-Foy, her lover of the moment, and some 
other persons to sup with him in his apartments at 
Versailles, where the King, who had been an unseen 
spectator of the banquet, "through a secret window 
made in the dining-room wall," was so enraptured 
with her beauty and vivacity that he ordered her to be 
brought toi him; the following day, or, according to 
other versions, the same evening/ 

A more probable solution of the question, however, 
which attributes the meeting to accident, is to be found 
in a letter written by Jean du Barry, in 1776, to 
Malesherbes, then Minister of the Household to Louis 
XVL The ''Roue/' who on the death of Louis XV. 
had been promptly exiled, was desirous of visiting 
Paris, "in order to see his doctor, his oculist, and his 
creditors" ; and, in the hope of securing permission tO' 
do so, enters into a sort of justification of his life, in- 
cluding an explanation of his share in the introduction 
of "Mademoiselle de Vaubernier" to the late King. 
Here is what he says on the matter : 

^Dutens's Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (edit. 1806), 
ii. 36. 



MADAME DU BARRY 39 

''Having at that time no other care than that of 
watching over the education of my son, page tO' the 
King, who possessed but indifferent heaUh, I with- 
drew intO' a very limited circle of acquaintances. And 
it was then that I begged Madame Rangon and her 
daughter, Mademoiselle Vaubernier, tO' take charge of 
my house and do the honours of it, a task which they 
performed for several years with kindness and intel- 
ligence, 

"Moved by gratitude, and with a view to providing 
for their future, I then surrendered to them my in- 
terest in the provisioning of Corsica, which they en- 
joyed for some months. 

"The new arrangements made by M. de Choiseul 
having deprived them of this, they solicited from him 
its continuance; and it was in the course of the dif- 
ferent journeys which he required them to make to 
Versailles that Mademoiselle Vaubernier attracted the 
attention of the late King. M. Lebel received his 
orders, and the latter, with whom neither she nor my- 
self had any acquaintance, arranged matters with her 
alone . . . .''^ 

Although the above version of the affair is quite in 
accordance with the habits of his Most Christian 
Majesty, who, d'Argenson tells us, was accustomed 
to "throw the handkerchief" to any pretty young girl 
or woman he might chance to see at Mass or else- 
where,^ we should hesitate to accept it, since it was 
SO' obviously to the writer's interest to minimise his 

^ Revue de Paris, November 1836. 

^"February 13, 1753. — The King is indulging in passades; he 
throws the handkerchief to young girls and women whom he 
perceives at Mass or at the grand convert. Bachelier, his old 
prime minister (Lebel's predecessor), brings them to him. A 
young beauty of Montpellier, daughter of the President Nicquet, 
with whom I am acquainted, has lately ' taken the leap ' (sautee 
le pas), and is still at Versailles; she expects to become mattresse 
declaree." 



40 MADAME DU BARRY 

part in the transaction. But, as it happens, his account 
is confirmed by two independent chroniclers, Sara 
Goudard and Montigny ; while we learn from the un- 
published Memoirs of Choiseul* that Jeanne did 
actually visit the Minister at Versailles, on two oc- 
casions, in reference to the matter mentioned by Du 
Barry. 

But whether it was accident or design which threw 
Jeanne across the path of Louis XV., it is beyond 
question that the old King's subjugation was im- 
mediate and complete. 

The secret of the extraordinary fascination which 
she exercised over him, and continued to exercise 
to the day of his death, lay not so much in her physical 
charms, great as these undoubtedly were, but in 
her high spirits, her unfailing good-humour, and, 
above all, in her absolute freedom from affectation. 
"Instead of imitating the great ladies who bored 
the King, she showed herself just as she w^as, 
under the aspect of a veritable courtesan, with 
all the cynicism, animation, and refinements of her 
trade Louis XV. felt his jaded senses revive as 
if by a miracle. He was enchanted by it. The new 
favourite seemed tO' him an exceptional being. He 
determined to cover her with a rain of gold and 

* These memoirs, which must not be confused with the Me- 
moires de M. le due de Choiseul, ecrits par lui-meme, printed at 
Choiseul's private press at Chanteloup in 1773, and published in 
1790, are declared by M. Vatel to be "as authentic as important," 
and such would appear to be the opinion of most historians, in- 
cluding, among recent writers, M, Pierre de Nolhac. On the 
other hand, Ritter von Arneth and M. Flammermont, in a note 
to their Correspondance secrete du Comte de Mercy- Argenteati 
avec I'Empereur Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunitz (Paris, 
1896), assert that they are spurious. Whether the memoirs are 
genuine or not, however, there can be no question that they are 
the work of some one intimately acquainted with the Court of 
Louis XV., and, if not written by Choiseul, largely inspired by 
him. 



MADAME DU BARRY 41 



jewels, and make her the first femme entretenue in 
France — -in all Europe.' 



JJ5 



It was in the early days of July 1768, that the events 
of which we have just spoken occurred, and the Court 
was on the point of setting out on its annual visit to 
Compiegne. Louis XV. was naturally desirous that 
his new conquest should follow him thither. But, 
as a demoiselle, particularly one of humble birth, 
could not well perform the functions of a royal 
mistress without risk of grave scandal- — it was a sort 
of unwritten law that the favourite must be a married 
and titled woman — he decided that a husband with the 
necessary qualifications must be found for her with- 
out delay, and communicated his wishes to Jeanne du 
Barry, through the medium of Lebel.*' 

So lucrative a role as that of honorary consort to 
the King's new mistress would have suited the ''Roue" 
admirably, but, unfortunately, he was debarred from 
playing it, his neglected wife being still in the flesh. 
However, there was no necessity to let the post pass out 
of his sphere of influence, as he had a bachelor brother, 
Guillaume by name, a needy oflicer or ex-oflicer of 
Marines, who lived with his widowed mother and 
his two sisters at the family-seat of the Du Barrys, at 
Levignac, near Toulouse, and who seemed expressly 
made for the occasion.^ 

" Imbert de Saint- Amand's Les Femmes de Versailles : Les 
dernieres annees de Louis XV., p. 2^. 

°The monarch's infatuation for Mademoiselle de Vaubernier 
by no means commended itself to this worthy, to whose interest 
it was to keep his royal master supplied with a constant succes- 
sion of charmers. So angry was he that he took upon himself to 
remonstrate v'ehemently with his Majesty, who, highly incensed 
at his presumption, threatened to strike him with the fire-irons 
if he did not at once desist. This threat, we are told, aiffected M. 
Lebel so deeply as to bring on an attack of colic, whereof he died 
two days later. 

^Jeanne du Barry had another brother Nicolas, called Elie, 



42 MADAME DU BARRY 

The good folk at Levignac had not seen their rela- 
tive for years, and were, in consequence, not a little 
astonished when one day he descended upon them, 
informed them that he had come to make all their 
fortunes, and carried the whole family off to Tou- 
louse, where, before a notary named Sens, the old 
lady signed a procuration authorising Guillaume du 
Barry "tO' contract a marriage with any person whom 
he should judge suitable, on the express understand- 
ing that the said dame should not be required to make 
any provision for her son on the occasion of the said 
marriage." 

This formality completed, Jean, the intended bride- 
groom, and their two sisters, all set out for Paris, 
travelling in such frantic haste as to suggest the 
possibility of there being some other candidate for 
Mademoiselle de Vaubernier's hand in the field; and, 
on July 23, the day after their arrival in the capital, 
the marriage contract was duly executed/ 

A more amazing piece of impudence than this con- 
tract it would be difficult to conceive. 

The future husband, who had been plain Guillaume 
du Barry in the procuration signed at Toulouse, be- 
comes "high and puissant seigneur, messire Guil- 
laume, Comte du Barry, son of the deceased messire 
Antoine, Comte du Barry, and of the dame Catherine 
Delacaze, his spouse." 

The ''Roue" arrogates to himself even more impos- 
ing qualifications, and is not only a high and puissant 
seigneur, but the holder of a presumably important 

and a third sister who had married a peasant of Levignac, named 
Filieuse. The two sisters who lived with their mother had been 
baptized respectively Frangoise and Marthe, but were known by 
the sobriquets of " Chon " and " Bitschi." The elder, " Chon," 
was a young woman of considerable intelligence, and, according 
to Pidansat de Mairobert, contributed to the Mercure. 
^ M. Lenotre's Vieilles maisons, vieux papiers, 197 et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 43 

office under the Crown, Governor of Levignac, to wit. 
Levignac, it may be mentioned, was a little village, 
which probably did not contain a single house of any 
size apart from the chateau of the Du Barrys. 

But the most startling transformation is reserved 
for the future bride, who not only changes her name 
for the fourth time, but invents, or has invented for 
her, a father to bear it, and styles herself "the demoi- 
selle Jeanne Gomard de Vaubernier, a minor, daughter 
of the dame Rangon and of the sieur Jean Jacques 
Gomard de Vauhernier, interested in the affairs of the 
King, her Urst husband/' 

As may be anticipated, the body of this precious 
document is in keeping with the preamble. 

It provides that there should be nO' community of 
goods between the parties, but that the wife should 
charge herself with all the expenses of the menage: 
food, rent, table-linen, household utensils, keep of 
horses, and so forth, and with the maintenance and 
education of the children born of the marriage! In 
return for this, the husband was to make her an an- 
nual allowance of 6000 livres, payable half-yearly and 
in advance, in addition to a sum of 1000 livres per 
annum which he is declared to have already settled 
upon her. 

A paper annexed to the contract reveals the lady's 
fondness for jewellery and fine raiment. It states that 
she possesses diamonds (collar, aigrette earings, &c.) 
to the value of 16,000 livres; English, Brussels, and 
Valenciennes lace worth 6000 livres; thirty silk 
gowns, two dozen corsets, and other articles of apparel 
in proportion. Altogether her property is valued at 
30,000 livres, which is declared to be *^the result of 
her earnings and economies." 

In order to sustain the titles and dignities which the 
Du Barrys had bestowed upon themselves, a coat-of- 



44 MADAME DU BARRY 

arms was, of course, required ; but the inventive genius 
of the ''Roue" was fully equal to the occasion. He 
instituted researches into his genealogy, and quickly- 
discovered that his family was a branch of the old 
Irish house of Barrymore, the arms and motto of 
which — Boute2-en-avant — the ''Comtesse" du Barry 
forthwith assumed and retained for the rest of her 
life/ 

The religious ceremony, indispensable at this period 
to the validity of a marriage, was postponed until 
September i — M. Vatel thinks on account of the ill- 
ness and death of Lebel, who had died on August 17 — 
when it took place at the Church of Saint-Laurent, at 
five o'clock in the morning, in order to avoid undesir- 
able publicity. The mysterious Gomard, the ex-Pic- 
pus, the soi-disanf uncle and presumed father oi 
Jeanne,^** appeared tO' represent the stepfather and 
mother of the bride, resplendent in "a frock of maroon 

®The family of Barry of Barry's Court, Viscounts Buttevant 
and Earls of Barrymore, traced their descent back to one William 
de Barri, of Norman origin. William de Barri's eldest son, 
Robert, accompanied Robert Fitz-Stephen to Ireland in 1169, 
to assist Dermot, King of Leinster, to regain his throne, and, 
after a series of 'exploits which earned for him the name of 
Barrymore, was slain at Lismore, about the year 1185. He was 
succeeded by his brother, Philip de Barry, whose son, David, 
became Viscount Buttevant. One of David's lineal descendants, 
another David de Barri, was created Earl of Barrymore in 1628, 
as a reward for his fidelity to English interests. The title be- 
came extinct on the death of the eighth earl without issue in 
1824. — Burke's " Dormant and Extinct Peerag'es," p. 24, et seq. 

It is worth noting that the then Earl of Barrymore, Richard 
Barry, the sixth holder of the title, acknowledged Madame du 
Barry's claim, but, according to Mr. J. B. Robinson ("The Last 
Earls of Barrymore," p. 146), he was wrong in so doing, though 
his supposition that he had collateral relatives in France was 
correct. " The French branch," says the author, " is another 
family altogether, the present (1894) representative of which is 
the Comte Barry de Mervel (Chateau de Mervel, Seine-In- 
ferieure), whose ancestor accompanied James II. into exile." 

^^ He seems to have been now known as the Abbe Gomard and 
to have been assistant-priest at Saint-Eustache. 



MADAME DU BARRY 45 

bouracan with gold buttons, coat, vest, and breeches 
of Lille camel ot, and a cassock and cloak of Saint- 
Maur cloth/'" and, not to be outdone by the Du 
Barrys, gave a false Christian name— he had lent his 
own to the mythical brother, Gomard de Vaubernier 
— and had the impudence to style himself "Almoner 
to the King." 

The marriage contract had been, as we have seen, a 
tissue of lies; the documents connected with the re- 
ligious ceremony were infinitely worse. Proofs of 
Jeanne's claim to be the legitimate daughter of the 
aforementioned Gomard de Vaubernier ^'interested in 
the affairs of the King, were, of course, required ; and 
to furnish these wholesale forgery was resorted to. 
Two certificates were produced. The first, which 
purported to be signed by the vicar of Vaucouleurs 
and witnessed by the provost of the town, stated that 
Jeanne had been born on August 19, 1746, instead of 
1743, from the marriage of Jeanne Becu, otherwise 
known as Quantigny, and Jean Jacques Gomard de 
Vaubernier. (It is upon this document that the erro- 
neous information in regard to Madame du Barry's 
origin to be found in so many works of reference is 
based. ) The second declared that the said Vaubernier 
had died in September, 1749, at Vaucouleurs, in the 
presence of his "father-in-law," Fabian Becu, who 
had, as a matter of fact, died himself four years 
earlier. 

Falsification of documents in those days was pun- 
ished by the galleys, and, in cases where the intention 
was to deceive the King, by death. Why then, it 
may be asked, were the ''Roue" and his accomplices 
so ready to brave the terrors of the law, and who was 

" Apparently the gift of the bride, as these articles figure in an 
account rendered to Madame du Barry about this time by Carlier, 
the tailor who made her servants' liveries. 



46 MADAME DU BARRY 

the instigator of these shameful frauds? It is, in our 
opinion, absurd to ascribe them, as some writers do, 
to the impudence of Jean clu Barry, who was far too 
astute a personage to commit such an act, unless he 
were well assured of absolute impunity. The matter, 
we fear, must always remain obscure, but there is 
grave reason to believe that Louis XV. himself was 
an accessory ; in other words, that when he had insisted 
on his mistress's marriage he had given her to under- 
stand that if her friends saw fit to exercise their in- 
ventive talents on her behalf it would not be altogether 
displeasing to him. 

Madame du Barry and her de jure husband parted 
at the church door, and do not appear to have ever set 
eyes on one another again. The latter, who imme- 
diately after the nuptial ceremony had received, as the 
price of his complaisance, a brevet conferring a pen- 
sion of 5000 livres upon him, did not, as the Gon- 
courts, M. Vatel and Mr. Douglas all state, return the 
same day to Toulouse. He remained in Paris, in- 
stalled himself in a fine apartment in the Rue de 
Bourgogne, and proceeded to enjoy life. To console 
himself for the loss of his wife, he formed a liaison 
with a damsel of nineteen, named Madeleine Lemoine, 
who lived on the other side of the street, and is 
described by a contemporary as "a piquant brunette, 
with magnificent eyes, a pretty mouth, and teeth of 
dazzling whiteness,"" and who, in the course of 
the following year, presented him with a son. To 
Guillaume's credit it should be added that he seems 
to have been genuinely attached to Mademoiselle 
Lemoine, as he remained faithful to her for the rest 
of his life, and soon after his wife's death, in 1793, 
married her, "in order to assure his name to the 

" Souvenirs d'une ac trice, Louise Fusil, cited by M. Lenotre in 
Vieilles maisons, vieux papiers, p. 205. 



MADAME DU BARRY 47 

woman to whom he was united by ties of gratitude 
and esteem. "^^ 

At Compiegne, whither Madame du Barry had 
followed the Court after the signing of the marriage 
contract, her relations with the King appear to have 
been conducted with a certain amount of discretion, 
and to have aroused but little comment. But when, at 
the beginning of October, the Court migrated, as usual, 
tc Fontainebleau, the new favourite was given a suite 
of apartments in the chateau itself, and his Majesty's 
attentions to her became so very marked that nothing 
else was spoken of, and the Austrian Ambassador, 
Mercy- Argenteau, deemed it advisable to send the fol- 
lowing report of the affair to his Government : 

Mercy to Kaunitz. 
Fontainebleau, November i, 1768. 
"Monseigneur, — I believe I ought to render to your 
Highness a full account of certain circumstances 
which have arisen at this Court, and which appear to 
me likely to effect objects too important not to merit 
your attention. A person named Du Barry, Breton^* 
gentleman, great intriguer, broker of the pleasures of 
M. de Richelieu and several others, lived for some 
years with a creature whom he delivered over to his 
acquaintances for a pecuniary consideration, when 
the state of his finances obliged him to have recourse 
to such expedients. This Du Barry, at length, after 
having married his concubine to one of his brothers, 
found means, through the instrumentality of the 
first valet-de-chambre, named Lebel, to introduce her 
to the King shortly before the last visit to Com- 
piegne, whither this woman followed the Court, and 

^^ Ibid. p. 215. 

"Mercy was, of course, misinformed; Jean du Barry was a 
Languedocien. 



48 MADAME DU BARRY 

was lodged in a private house. This first appearance 
occasioned but little sensation, but, shortly afterwards, 
one saw the new favourite in possession of a very 
elegant equipage and a very handsomely furnished 
lodging. Then some young gentlemen of the Court 
sought to introduce themselves to her, in order to pay 
their respects. The Sieur du Barry made, in the mean- 
while, researches into his genealogy, and discovered 
that he was descended from the ancient Irish family of 
Barrymore, whereof he assumed the arms, which one 
sees displayed on the carriage of Madame du Barry 
and on a very handsome sedan-chair, which she makes 
use of in the interior of the chateau. She is lodged 
in the court called des Fontaines, near the apartment 
which Madame de Pompadour used to occupy ; she has 
a number of servants and brilliant liveries, and on 
fete-days and Sundays one sees her at the King's 
Mass, in one of the chapels on the re^-de-chaussee, 
which is reserved for her. 

"A treatment so different to that which would be 
accorded a simple girl augmented from day to day 
the attention of the courtiers. On my side, I took 
measures to inform myself of the tone which this 
woman adopts among her intimates. I ascertained 
that she was beginning to give herself airs of impor- 
tance; that she spoke of the Government and the 
Ministers, and of the great services which a favoutite 
rendered the State by enlightening the King in regard 
to the vices of the administration. I ascertained fur- 
ther that this woman expected to be publicly presented 
at Court, and that a subordinate cabal, supported by 
some persons of more exalted rank, favoured this 
project; that they had even sounded Mesdames de 
France,^ and that one of the Mesdames was of opinion 

"The four unmarried daughters of Louis XV. Adelaide, Vic- 
toria, Sophie, and Louise. 



MADAME DU BARRY 49 

that, however objectionable so indecent a presentation 
might be, it was, nevertheless, better to support it 
than to expose themselves to the danger of the King's 
re-marriage." 

"The serious turn this affair was taking finally deter- 
mined me to speak of it to the Spanish Ambassador, 
who was but imperfectly informed in regard to it. We 
agreed that he should explain his views to M. de 
Choiseul, and he did so forthwith. But, to our pro- 
found astonishment, the Minister appeared, or wished 
to appear, ignorant of a great part of the circum- 
stances of this intrigue, and M. de Fuentes ex- 
perienced considerable difficulty in convincing him of 
it. He represented to M. de Choiseul how greatly the 
person of the King would be degraded by such a 
scandal; he enlarged upon all the grievous conse- 
quences which would result from the re-establishment 
of a maitresse-en-titre ; finally, he succeeded in fixing 
the attention of M. de Choiseul upon this matter, and 
they deliberated on the means of averting the danger. 
M. de Fuentes proposed to compose a letter, which he 
should write tO' his Court, and which, having been 
intercepted, should be brought to the notice of his 
Most Christian Majesty. This expedient has been 
adopted and will be carried out. Independently of 
that, M. de Choiseul is resolved to seize an opportunity 
of speaking to the King about his new mistress; to 
disclose to Him the true character of this creature; to 
represent to Him how greatly the dignity of the mon- 
archy will be injured in the public estimation if He 
gives publicity to the favour of a woman whO' cannot, 
or ought not, reasonably to serve any but the most 
secret pleasures. 

^® Mercy was mistaken ; Mesdames do not appear to have 
learned of their father's intrigue till later. Moreover, they op- 
posed it strongly as soon as they found that it was something 
more than a galanterie. See p. 61, infra. 



50 MADAME DU BARRY 

*'Now, Monseigneur, you are in possession o£ this 
strange story, which I still flatter myself will prove 
but a transient affair. I am' endeavouring tO' utilise it, 
through the medium of the Ambassador of Spain, in 
order to make M. de Choiseul understand how greatly 
it would be to the advantage both of the State and 
the King himself that this prince, who still clings 
to pleasures of the senses, should procure legitimate 
means, and liberate himself by a marriage from all 
these disorders, which are such a bad example for the 
Royal Family, a source of intrigues so disturbing to 
the Ministers, and so injurious to the proper conduct 
of affairs. I cannot too highly praise the good will 
and zeal with which M. de Fuentes lends himself to 
the execution of all the measures which I suggest to 
him In regard to this matter, and which would be al- 
most Impossible, or, at any rate, very dangerous for 
me to employ myself. 

" Since writing my letter I have had a long con- 
ference with M. le Due de Choiseul on the matters of 
which my despatches treat to-day, and our conversa- 
tion has taken sO' favourable a turn that I ended by 
speaking tO' him of Madame du Barry, under the 
pretext of friendship and attachment to his person. I 
repeated to him all that I had ascertained about this 
woman, and he professed himself much indebted to 
me for this overture. He permitted himself to speak 
very freely to me of this intrigue, with which I per- 
ceive he is now much occupied, and even begged me to 
communicate to him everything that I may learn about 
it in the future, though he did not confide to me the 
measures which he proposes to take, and which, thanks 
to the Spanish Ambassador, I am acquainted with. 
I have come to an understanding with the latter that 
we should act in concert, without allowing M. de 



MADAME DU BARRY 51 

Choiseul to become aware of it, and I hope, Mon- 
seigneur, that we shall succeed in co-operating in this 
way to good purpose. I shall exercise great care to 
avoid all imprudence in a matter so delicate."" 

" Correspondance secrete du Comte de Mercy-Argenteau avec 
I'Empereur Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunitz, par le Chevalier 
d'Arnett et M. Jules Flammermont (Paris, 1896, ii. 338, et seq. 



H 



CHAPTER IV 

ISTORY affords us few instances of a states- 
man who with the aid of only moderate 
abilities has attained to such a position as 
the Due de Choiseul/ From the day on which he 
first entered the Council, as the nominee of Madame de 
Pompadour, at the close of 1757, his influence, thanks 
to his own self-confidence and resolution, the inca- 
pacity of his colleagues, and the indolence and apathy 
of the King had gone on steadily increasing, until he 
had become, to all intents and purposes, master of 
France. He combined in his own person the func- 
tions of three departments, Foreign Affairs, the Army, 
and the Marine,^ and even talked of taking charge of 
the Finances as well. He held the surintendance des 
posies, an office which placed in his hands great and 
much-dreaded powers, as it enabled him to violate at 
will the sanctity of private correspondence.^ He was 
colonel-general of the Gardes Suisses, a command 
usually reserved for Princes of the Blood, governor of 
the Invalides, governor-general of Touraine, and grand 
bailli of Hagueneau, and he also held several minor 

*We are aware that some French historians regard Choiseul 
as a great Minister, and such was undoubtedly the opinion of 
many of his contemporaries. But his qualities were more showy 
than solid, and, compared with the illustrious statesmen of the 
two preceding reigns, his record is poor indeed. 

^The Marine was nominally held by Choiseul's cousin, the 
Due de Choiseul-Praslin, but he was a nonentity, and historians 
invariably speak of it as one of Choiseul's departments. 

^ See on this subject the Memoires de Madame de Hausset 
(edit. 1825), p. 105, and the author's "Madame de Pompadour," 
p. 291, et seq. 

52 



MADAME DU BARRY 53 

posts. His relatives and proteges filled all the most 
lucrative positions in the Army, the Diplomatic Ser- 
vice and the Church; he lived in almost royal state, 
and enormous as was his official income,^ his house- 
hold expenses alone were believed to exceed it. 

Moreover, his credit abroad was immense. The 
foreign policy of Spain was conducted entirely on his 
advice; Turkey looked to him for support against 
Russian aggression ; at Vienna he was regarded as the 
mainstay of the Franco-Austrian alliance, and he had 
but recently concluded the arrangements for a mar- 
riage between the Dauphin and the Archduchess 
Marie Antionette. 

A Minister so circumstanced, one would suppose, 
could have afforded to regard the advent of a new mis- 
tress with equanimity ; but such was very far from be- 
ing the case. Whether from genuine concern for the 
dignity of the Monarchy, which he believed would be 
irremediably degraded by association with a woman 
of so humble an origin and so unenviable a reputa- 
tion,^ or because he was apprehensive that Madame du 
Barry might develop a taste for political intrigue to 
his own detriment, or merely because his vanity was 
wounded by the King's omission to consult him in 
the matter, Choiseul from the very first evinced the 
bitterest hostility towards the lady. 

It may be doubted, however, if the Minister would 
have carried his enmity to the lengths which he did 
had it not been for the influence of his sister, Madame 
de Gramont. 

* Senac de Meilhan computes the income which Choiseul de- 
rived from his various offices at upwards of 700,000 livres. 

^ This was the popular view. " People imagined that it was on 
moral and public grounds that the Due de Choiseul was opposed 
to Madame du Barry, and owing to this belief, devoid of founda- 
tion, he became the idol of the magistrates, their numerous 
partisans, and, finally, of the entire public." — Senac de Meilhan's 
Portraits et Caracteres du xviii Steele, p. 32. 



54 MADAME DU BARRY 

This haughty, ambitious, and intriguing woman, 
undeterred by Louis XV. 's insensibihty to her charms, 
had never ceased to persevere in her efforts to effect 
his subjugation, and, aware that the feebleness of the 
monarch's character rendered it improbable that he 
would be for long able to withstand the resolution and 
daring with which she conducted her operations, had 
believed herself within measurable distance of success. 
Her fury and mortification, therefore, on seeing the 
prize for which she had so long striven snatched from 
her grasp by "a little girl of the streets," knew no 
bounds, and she and all the coterie which followed 
her inspirations pronounced against the favourite with 
the utmost violence. "She entreated her brother to 
show no yielding to the ignominy of this new power, 
and she braved the King and his mistress with an as- 
sured arrogance which was hardly justified by her 
own long-compromised virtue. "° This gentle little 
Duchesse de Choiseul, jealous of her sister-in-law and 
fearful of being thought less severe or less ardent 
against the enemies of her husband, made common 
cause with Madame de Gramont, while the haughty 
and high-tempered Princesse de Beauvau, "who al- 
ways knew how to proportion her efforts to the ob- 
stacles which stood in the way of her desires." 
declared that any one who did not openly side with 
them: would forfeit her regard.^ 

^M. Gaston Maugras's Le Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 

''The following anecdote, related by Chamfort, will show the 
real motive of the feminine opposition to th'e new favourite : 

" Madame du Barry, being at Luciennes, had a fancy to see 
Le Val, the residence of M. de Beauvau. She inquired of the 
latter if it would not displease Madame de Beauvau, and Madame 
de Beauvau professed that she would be delighted to receive her 
and do the honours. There was some talk of events which had 
happened in the time of Louis XV., and Madame du Barry com- 
plained of various things which seemed to indicate that she had 
been the object of hatred. ' Not at all/ said Madame de Beau- 



MADAME DU BARRY 55 

Madame du Barry, conscious of the weakness of 
her position, would have been ready to make almost 
any concession to avoid a struggle with such redoubt- 
able antagonists ; but Choiseul, urged on by the angry 
women who surrounded him, would hear of no com- 
promise, and the war began, as was the custom in 
those days, by a campaign of calumny — a storm of 
epigrams, pamphlets, and chansons, 

A song called La Bourhonnaise had at this time a 
great vogue both in Paris and the provinces. One of 
the scribes employed by Choiseul conceived the idea of 
writing a fresh set of verses, describing the career of 
Madame du Barry, and the new version, copies of 
which were distributed broadcast, soon ousted the old, 
and became so popular that, according to Grimm, 
there was no street or corner of the city where one did 
not hear it sung. 

"La Bourbonnaise 
Arrivant a Paris, 
A gagne des Louis. 
La Bourbonnaise 
A gagne des Louis. 
Chez un marquis. 

" Pour apanage 
Elle avait la beaute! 
Elle avait la beaute 

Pour apanage. 
Mais ce petit tresor 
Lui vaut de Tor." 

From a peasant she blossoms into a grand e dame, who 
rides in her coach, and at length, one fine day, finds 
herself at Versailles : 

" Elle est allee 
Se faire voir 'en cour, 
Se faire voir en cour 

vau, 'we only wanted your place.'" — Chamfort's Maximes, pen- 
sees, carac teres, et anecdotes (edit. 1796), p. 179. 



56 MADAME DU BARRY 

Elle est alle'e. 
On dit qu'elle a, ma foi, 
Plu meme au roi." 

Later, some additional verses, by no^ means conplimen- 
tary to the King and his new enchantress, appeared : 

" Quelle nouvelle ! 
Une fille de ri'en; 
Une fille de rien, 

Quelle nouvelle! 
Donne au rol de I'amour 
Est a la cour. 

"Elle est gentille, 
Elle a les yeux fripons; 
Elle a les yeux fripons, 

Elle est gentille. 
Elle excite avec art 
Un vieux paillard." 

The stage Hkewise lent its aid to the enmity of the 
Minister. Plays were written round the adventures of 
the new favourite, and performed at the booths and 
fairs in and around Paris. On October 30, Gaudon's 
troop of actors* gave a representation of a burlesque 
called La Bourbonnaise d la guinguette, the action of 
which is supposed to take place at the Cadran hleu, a 
well-known tavern in the Faubourg des Porcherons. 
The heroine is represented as a course virago, using 
the argot of the slums, indulging in scandalous 
liaisons, and tossing off bumpers of wine and brandy. 
A cook, a coiffeur, a Government clerk, and the 
keeper of a gambling-house, characters intended to 
represent Anne Becu, Lametz, Saint-Foy, and the 
"Roue" were allotted leading parts in this precious 

® Founded by an actor named Restier in 1735, under the name 
of " la grande troupe etrangere." It perform'ed at the fairs of 
Saint-Laurent and Saint-Germain, and it is probably at the 
latter, which was held in October, that the Bourbonnaise d> la 
guinguette was played. 



MADAME DU BARRY 57 

production, which was afterwards printed to ensure 
greater publicity. 

A few days later, a second Bourhonnaise, *'an 
operetta with dialogues in prose," was performed by 
Nicolet's troupe/ In this piece, which was the work 
of Beauno'ir, a playwright of some merit, the satire 
is more refined than in La Bourhonnaise a la giiin- 
guette, but it is not less mordant, and "the most 
critical period of Madame du Barry's life is laid 
bare, with exaggerations no doubt, but with a sub- 
stratum' of truth." The operetta turns upon the 
Bourhonnaise' s relations with a coiffeur de dames 
named Retappe, who' is, of course, Lametz. The 
Bourhonnaise is about tO' espouse Retappe when a 
neighbour interferes and urges her to exploit her 
beauty. The maiden and Ratappe take counsel to- 
gether; at first they are inclined to reject such an odious 
proposition, but eventually avarice proves stronger 
than virtue. The scene thereupon changes to a gam- 
bling-house, to which Retappe brings gilded youths to 
pay their court to the Bourbonnaise. She invites them 
to join her in a game of cards, with results which may 
be anticipated. Then a peddling jeweller arrives, and 
the gilded youths expend more of their money in load- 
ing their hostess with presents. Further sums are 
extracted from them, when the Bourhonnaise' s credi- 
tors, previously invited by the lady, make a sudden 
descent and refuse to leave till their claims are satis- 
fied. The play concludes with a duel between two of 
the heroine's admirers, the arrival of the watch, and 
the: hurried break-up of the company." 

The movement once launched went merrily on. 
Two other plays, one satirizing the favourite and the 

^ " This troupe is the only one which has a successful existence 
to-day (1779)." — Hurtaut and Magny's Dictionnaire de la ville de 
Paris et ses environs, iv. 705. 

"Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 144, et seq. 



58 MADAME DU BARRY 

other the ''Roue,'' a manuscript pamphlet, called 
U Apprentissage d'une Ulle de modes, in which 
Madame du Barry figures under the name of Agnes 
Pompon, and a biting satire, UApotheose du Roi 
Petaiid, which was attributed, though, it would seem, 
without foundation, tO' Voltaire, followed one another 
in quick succession; and, at the beginning of Decem- 
ber, the Austrian Ambassador informs his Govern- 
ment that nothing is talked of in the theatres and 
the streets but the scandalous conduct of the King, 
and that the popular exasperation is becoming sO' great 
that placards are being affixed to the walls, "which, 
among expressions of the most terrifying descrip- 
tion, prognosticate that France is still able to produce 
Ravaillacs and Damiens."" 

M. Vatel, in his Histoire de Madame du Barry, ex- 
presses surprise that Choiseul should have con- 
descended tO' such methods of warfare, since it would 
have been easy for him, with the Lieutenant of Police 
and his numerous agents under his orders, tO' have 
procured documentary proofs of the new favourite's 
humble origin and discreditable past, and also of the 
impudent frauds perpetrated on the occasion of her 
marriage, and to have laid them before the King. 
Had this course been adopted, he argues, all danger of 
Madame du Barry becoming maUresse en tifre would 
have been averted, as, though the monarch's infatua- 
tion might have been strong enough to induce him to 
overlook her quasi-criminal complicity in the Du 
Barrys' forgeries, he would certainly never have dared 
tO' force her upon his Court. 

M. Vatel, however, was unacquainted with the cor- 
respondence between Mercy and Kaunitz, published 
some years ago, from which it appears that Choiseul 
had fully intended to take this step, but was dissuaded 

"Letter of Mercy to Kaunitz, December g, 1768. 



MADAME DU BARRY 59 

therefrom by the representations of the Ambassadors 
of Austria and Spain, to both of which Powers it was 
a matter of the most vital importance that Choiseul's 
credit with his royal master should remain unimpaired. 
Mercy and Fuentes pointed out that an open remon- 
strance, which could not fail to humiliate the King, 
might very well dO' the Minister irreparable injury, 
and should, at all costs, be avoided. The scandal was 
a public one; all France deplored it. It would be 
wiser to allow the echo of the rumours concerning the 
favourite's past to reach the ears of the monarch ; and 
a Minister so powerful as Choiseul could easily find 
means of ensuring this, without committing himself.^^ 
Unfortunately for Choiseul and his advisers, the 
campaign of calumny had the very opposite effect to 
that which they had anticipated. The pamphleteers 
and playwrights whom the Minister employed did their 
work but too well. Not content with bringing ac- 
cusations against the favourite which had some foun- 
dation in fact, their zeal led them to charge her with 
vices and faults of which she was wholly guiltless, 
such as drunkenness, vulgarity, and ignorance. What 
chivalry remained to Louis XV. was aroused by these 
shameful attacks upon a defenceless woman. His reply 
was to redouble his attentions to his mistress, to load 
her with favours, and, finally, to order apartments tO' 
be prepared for her at Versailles. 

" Despatch of Mercy to Kaunitz, December 9, 1768. 



CHAPTER V 

IT would appear to have been in the dosing weeks 
of 1768 or the first of the following year that 
Madame du Barry was installed at Versailles. 
The apartments allotted to her were those of the de- 
ceased valet-de-chamhre Lebel, situated on the rez-de- 
chaiissee of the Cour Royale, and here she remained 
until the spring of 1770, when she removed to the suite 
which had formerly been occupied by the deceased 
Dauphiness, Marie Josephe of Saxony, on the second 
floor of the chateau, immediately above the King's 
private apartments/ 

A little court soon gathered about her: ambitious 
young noblemen, eager to worship at the shrine of the 
rising sun ; foreigners of rank, like the Prince de 
Ligne, who came thither curious to see how the little 
courtesan he had known in the Rue de Jussien com- 
ported herself amid her new surroundings, and some 
of Jeanne's old literary acquaintances, like Robbe de 
Beauveset^ and Cailhava/ In the afternoons, a stream 

^ The Goncourts (who also assert that the new favourite was 
installed at Versailles immediately after her marriage), M. Vatel, 
and Mr. Douglas all say that the apartments to which Madame 
du Barry removed were those of Madame Adelaide, Louis XV.'s 
eldest daughter, who was given those of the Dauphiness in ex- 
change. This, as M. de Nolhac points out in his interesting 
work, Le Chateau de Versailles sous Louis XV., is an error. 

^Pierre Honore Robbe de Beauveset (1712-1792), a poet 
celebrated, or at least known, for his profane and licentious 
Verses. Madame du Hausset says: "This same Archbishop of 
Paris (Christophe de Beaumont) gave a pension of 1200 livres 
to the greatest scoundrel in Paris (Robbe de Beauveset), who 
writes abominable verses; this pension being granted on condi- 
tion that his poems were never printed. I was informed of this 

60 



MADAME DU BARRY 6i 

of visitors might be seen wending its way towards the 
apartments of the new divinity; and Madame de Gra- 
mont, whose windows overlooked the Cour Royale, 
compelled to^ witness the triumph of her rival, was 
beside herself with mortification and jealousy, and 
urged her brother to prosecute the campaign of 
slander with renewed vigour. 

As soon as Madame du Barry was installed at Ver- 
sailles, the question of her presentation to the King 
was raised. The Goucourts assert that Jean du Barry 
was the prime mover in this affair, but, in our opinion, 
there can be little doubt that the responsibility rests 
with the Due de Richelieu, who, on January i, 1769, 
had entered upon his term of office as First Gentleman 
of the Bedchamber, in which capacity he had charge 
of the presentations for the ensuing year. 

This hero of gallantry was now in his seventy- 
third year, but age had not diminished his predilection 
for the fair sex nor his love of intrigue. Bitterly 
jealous of Choiseul's ascendency over the King, and 
incensed by the Minister's refusal to allow him scope 
for the exercise of the meddlesome activity which he 
mistook for genius, he had viewed with unalloyed 
satisfaction the advent of a rival influence. At first, 
having no great confidence in the permanency of the 

by M. de Marigny, to whom he recited some of his shocking 
verses one evening when he supped with him, in company with 
some persons of quahty. He chinked the money in his pocket 
and said, laughing: *This is my good archbishop's; I keep my 
word with him; my poem will never be printed so long as I 
live, but I read it. What would the worthy prelate say if he knew 
that I had shared my last quarter's allowance with a charming 
little dancer from the Opera?'" 

^Jean Frangois Cailhava d'Estandoux (1731-1813), author of 
a number of comedies, including Le Manage impromptu, L'Ego- 
'isme, and Le Journaliste Anglais, in the last of which he re- 
venged himself upon La Harpe, who had severely criticised his 
productions in the Mercure, by making him appear in a most 
odious role. 



62 MADAME DU BARRY 

monarch's latest passion, he had hesitated to commit 
himself too deeply; but once assured that the affair 
was something more than a caprice, he resolved to 
lend his support to Madame du Barry, hoping thereby 
tO' ensure the undoing of his enemy and the realisation 
of certain political ambitions of his own, to which his 
reputation for levity had hitherto^ opposed an insur- 
mountable barrier. 

Richelieu's office of First Gentleman of the Bed- 
chamber afforded him ample opportunity for private 
conversation with his royal master, and it is probable 
that he experienced but little difficulty in inducing the 
King to lend a willing ear to his suggestion. 

There is, indeed, some reason to suppose that I^ouis 
already entertained the idea of having his mistress 
presented, and that the marriage on which he had 
insisted had had no' other object than to pave the 
way for this ceremony. The nature of his senile 
passion rendered it imperative that its object should be 
always near him ; but until the lady had been presented 
it was impossible for her to ride in the royal carriages, 
to be admitted tO' his Majesty's petits soupers, to pay 
her court to the Dauphin or the King's daughters 
{Mesdames), to be present at the ceremonies or fes- 
tivities of the Court, to enjoy, in a word, any of those 
privileges "without which the mistress was nothing 
but a mistress, with which the mistress was the 
favourite."* For the King to keep her at Versailles 
or in the other royal chateaux without acknowledg- 
ing her was to tacitly admit that he was in the wrong, 
to recognise limits tO' his power, and Louis XV. had 
always believed, as Choiseul observes, that "the eclat 
he threw into his amours was a proof of his 
authority." 

The presentation was then decided on, but before it 
*E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 45. 



MADAME DU BARRY 63 

could take place two obstacles had tO' be surmounted. 
The first of these, by a singular coincidence, the King 
had himself created. The right of presentation soli- 
cited by so many ladies was accorded to comparatively 
few. By a decree of April 1760, Louis XV. had very 
strictly defined the conditions upon which this favour 
was to be accorded. No lady was henceforth to be 
eligible who' could not satisfy the Court genealogist 
that both she and her husband were of noble birth. 

To the claim of Madame du Barry's titular husband 
no objection was likely to be raised; indeed, it had 
already been conceded when his younger brother, Elie 
du Barry, had been admitted as a pupil to the Ecole 
Militaire, and his nephew Adolphe, the ''Roue's" son, 
appointed page to the King, for both of which posi- 
tions proofs of noble birth were rigorously insisted on. 
But the favourite herself was in a very different case. 
How was she to get rid of the Becus and find a gene- 
alogy for the Vauberniers? 

Although Louis XV. firmly believed that his kingly 
dignity placed him above all laws, moral and re- 
ligious, he shared the general prejudice of his age, and 
entertained the deepest veneration for the rules of 
etiquette; and the difficulty with which he now found 
himself confronted appears tO' have occasioned him 
the keenest embarrassment. According to Belleval, 
he approached the Princesse de Tingry, with the idea 
of purchasing for Madame du Barry the principality 
of Lus in Bigorre,^ and allowing her to masquerade 
as a foreign princess, in which event, of course, no 
proofs of nobility would be required. If such were 
the case, the negotiations fell through, for when the 

^Lus in Bigorre was a little town in Gascony, situated on the 
River Gave, in the valley of Bareges, three leagues from the 
Spanish frontier. It had been united to the royal domain in the 
time of Philippe le Bel, but still enjoyed a nominal independence. 
It is now known as Luz-Saint-Sauveur. 



64 MADAME DU BARRY 

lady was presented it was certainly not as a foreign 
princess.*' How the difficulty was finally overcome 
does not appear to be known. Some writers are of 
opinion that the proofs were dispensed with altogether, 
while there is a more than remote possibility that 
Jean du Barry was again called upon tO' exercise his 
inventive talent. 

The second obstacle was less serious, but not less 
embarrassing. It was necessary to find a lady who 
had already been presented to act as marraine to the 
new postulant. This was no easy task. The resent- 
ment of the feminine portion of the Court against the 
favourite was far from being confined to the coterie 
dominated by Madame de Gramont; it was well-nigh 
universal. It was felt that for a woman of exalted 
position tO' undertake so unenviable a duty would mean 
degradation; while for one of lower rank to do so 
would be to court social ostracism. Every lady who 
was applied to indignantly refused, or took refuge in 
specious excuses.^ The Baronne de Montmorency, 
who it was thought might be willing to play the part 
*'in return for money and many favours," set so 
exorbitant a price upon her services that the King 
found it impossible to comply with her demands, and 
the friends of Madame du Barry were in despair. 
Finally, however, a marraine was found in the person 
of the Comtesse de Beam, a lady of very ancient but 
impoverished family,* who since the death of her 

^Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 117. 

'One lady did consent, but, finding that the King's daughters 
turned their backs upon her next time she went to^ Court, she 
took to her bed and gave out that she was stricken with a mortal 
disease. 

^Angelique Gabrlelle Joumard des Achards, married in 1738 
to Frangois Alexandre Galard, Vicomte de Beam, Seigneur d'Ar- 
gentines. The Galards of Beam claimed descent from the 
Merovingiens, through Eude of Aquitaine. They had enjoyed 
at one time a quasi-princely rank. 



MADAME DU BARRY 65 

husband had resided entirely upon her estates, and 
cared Httle for the opinion of a Court which she had 
ceased to adorn. The countess had come to Paris to 
prosecute a lawsuit, in which she herself had been en- 
gaged for some years and her family for more than 
two centuries. This lawsuit had at length been de^ 
cided in her favour, but in the interim she had in- 
curred large debts, which she was totally unable tO' 
settle. When, therefore, one fine day, Richelieu, who 
was a distant connection of her own, waited upon her, 
and suggested a way out of the difficulty, she readily 
agreed to do what was required of her, and the duke 
at once fixed the presentation of Madame du Barry 
for January 25. 

Meanwhile the war of chansons, parrphlets, and 
plays continued with unabated vigour, but whatever 
effect it may have produced upon the Court and the 
city it had little or none upon the amorous old 
monarch, unless to excite his resentment at such un- 
warrantable interference in his private affairs. Cha- 
grined at his want of success, Choiseul had recourse 
to other measures ; he cast about for a rival beauty who' 
might be capable of weaning the King fromi Madame 
du Barry, and fixed upon the wife of a Paris doctor, a 
Madame Millin, ''young and charming and devoted to- 
his interests." 

*'I have seen her," writes Belleval, *'but, though 
very pretty, she is not to be compared with the 
favourite. No one seems to think that M. de Choiseul 
will succeed in this affair, for the King is too in- 
fatuated."^ 

° Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 118. 

Writing under date January 15, Hardy confirms Belleval's ac- 
count of this incident, and describes Madame Mellin in much 
the same terms : " Young and pretty, but less beautiful than 
the countess (du Barry)." Some time afterwards, Choiseul put 



66 MADAME DU BARRY 

Such, indeed, proved to be the case; his Majesty 
would have nothing to say to Madame MilHn, and, in 
despair, the Minister decided to seek the assistance of 
Mesdames. 

The four unmarried daughters of Louis XV., 
Mesdames Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, 
lived a very retired and uneventful life, and had little 
influence or credit; but the King, in his selfish way, 
was much attached tO' them, and, in accordance with 
an old habit, which dated from the time when the 
princesses were young and agreeable companions, paid 
them daily visits, always at the same hour. The 
strict seclusion intO' which they had withdrawn since 
the death of the Queen, and the rigorous discretion 
they imposed upon their ladies and little circle of inti- 
mates, had hitherto prevented them from learning of 
their royal father's latest conquest, and they were 
ignorant even of the existence of such a person as 
Madame du Barry. Choiseul, however, having de- 
cided that the time had come to enlighten them, 
adroitly contrived that a copy of the following verses, 
which satirised the favourite without overstepping the 
bounds of propriety, should be brought under the 
notice of the princesses : 

"Lisette ta beaute seduit 

Et charme tout le monde. 
En vain la Duchesse en rougit, 

Et la princesse en gronde. 
Chacun salt qui Venus naquit 

De I'ecume de I'onde. 

" En vit-elle moins tous les Dieux 

Lui rendre un juste hommage, 
Et Paris, ce berger fameux, 

Lui donner I'avantage, 
Meme sur la reine des Cieux 

Et Minerve le Sage. 

forward another lad}^, his cousin, the Vicomt'e de Choiseul's 
wife, a beautiful Creole; but the King was insensible to her 
charms. 



MADAME DU BARRY ^7 

" Dans le Serrail {sic\ du Grand Seigneur 

Quelle est la Favorite? 
C'est la plus belle au gre du coeur 

Du Maitre qui Thabite. 
C'est le seul titre en sa faveur 

Et c'est le vrai merite." " 

After perusing these verses, Mesdames very 
naturally asked for an explanation, and were 
astonished to find that not only was the King en- 
gaged in a fresh liaison, but that it was viewed with 
complacence by not a few of their devout friends, who 
seemed to regard Madame du Barry as destined to re- 
pair the evil which Madame de Pompadour and Choi- 
seul had brought upon the Church by their anti- Jesuit 
policy. The preceptor of the Dauphin and his broth- 
ers, the Duke de La Vauguyon, and Madame de 
Marsan, gouvernante of the princesses, did not hesi- 
tate tO' assert their conviction that Providence had 
chosen this instrument, all unworthy though it was, to 
chasten the haughty Minister and bring about his 
fall/^ 

^" These pretty verses have been ascribed to several persons : to 
the Due de Nivernais, the Chevalier de Boufflers, and the Abb€ de 
Lattaignan, canon of Rheims. At the time when they were 
written the duke was generally believed to be the author; but 
M. Vatel is inclined to give the credit to the abbe. However 
that may be, the Choiseul party appear to have been of opinion 
that the irony was a little difficult to detect, and, accordingly, 
employed one of their scribes to parody the first verse: 

" De deux Venus on parle dans le monde, 
De toutes deux gouverner fut le lot. 

L'une naquit de I'ecume de I'onde, 
L'autre naquit de I'ecume du pot." 

Th'e " scum of the pot " is, of course, an allusion to the occupa- 
tion of the favorite's mother, who had at one time been a cook. 

"Hardy, in his Journal, relates that on the evening of February 
I, 1769, a priest of his acquaintance was dining with a friend. 
At dessert, another priest who was present invited the company 
to drink to "the presentation." Hardy's friend inquired his 
meaning, and was told : " It is that which took place yesterday, 
or will take place to-day, the presentation of the new Esther, 

Memoirs— 3 Vol. 2 



68 MADAME DU BARRY 

Now, Mesdames detested Choiseul. The eldest, 
Madame Adelaide, a haughty and vindictive woman, 
saw in him only the ally of Austria and the creature 
of Madame de Pompadour; the youngest, Madame 
Louise, the most intelligent of the family, could not 
pardon his expulsion of the Jesuits and his sympathy 
with the philosophers. However, they were too sin- 
cere in their desire for their royal father's spiritual 
welfare — ^they had since the Queen's death cherished 
the illusion that the King was ''sincerely converted 
and resolved to live like a good Christian" — to be 
deceived by the specious arguments of La Vauguyon 
and Madame de Marsan; and no sooner had they 
made themselves acquainted with the details of the 
affair, than they determined to sacrifice their per- 
sonal feelings and make common cause with the 
Minister. 

But, unfortunately for Choiseul, the princesses could 
not bring themselves to adopt the course which would, 
in all likelihood, have at least prevented the presenta- 
tion of Madame du Barry, even if it had had no further 
results — that of openly remonstrating with the King. 
They preferred to attack the new favourite by indirect 
methods, namely, by using their influence to promote 
their father's marriage with the Archduchess Eliza- 
beth. In this, as the following letter from Mercy to 
Kaunitz clearly indicates, they were unconsciously per- 
mitting themselves to be made the agents of the 
Austrian Ambassador, who, eager to turn the affair 
to the advantage of his Court, had contrived to gain 
over Madame Victor's dame d'atours (Mistress of 
the Robes) and confidante, the Comtesse de Durfort, 

who is to supplant Haman and deliver the Jewish people from 
oppression." The new Esther was Madame du Barry, Haman 
was Choiseul, and the Jewish people, the clerical party. — Journal 
des evenements tels qu'ils parviennent a ma connaissance. 
(Bibliotheque Nationale.) 



MADAME DU BARRY 69 

and, through her, was pulling the strings with con- 
siderable adroitness: 

Mercy to Kaunitz. 

*^ Paris, December 29, 1768. 

"M'onseigneur, ^ — -Some very interesting circum- 
stances have lately arisen relative to the matter of 
which I had the honour to render an account to your 
Highness in my letter of November i. I acquainted 
you on that occasion with the first details of the in- 
trigue of Madame du Barry, and I added that I was 
endeavouring to turn this conjuncture to account — ^to 
make it understood how important it was to the tran- 
quillity of the Ministers and the glory of the King 
that this prince should extricate himself by means of 
a second marriage from the irregularities to which 
he does not cease to abandon himself. 

"As soon as this could be done without exciting 
suspicion, I insinuated my views into every quarter 
where I judged them capable of producing some 
efifect, and I found occasion to speak of them, amongst 
others, to Madame de Durfort, dame d'atours to 
Madame de France (Madame Victor). This lady 
spoke to me with considerable frankness about Ma- 
dame du Barry; she confided to^ me that, at the out- 
set, Mesdames had not imagined that this adventure 
was likely to have serious consequences, but that, 
alarmed by the public clamour and by the results 
which are only too easy to foresee, they were in de- 
spair about it, and were seeking means to put an end 
to the intrigue. 

"A week after the first overtures of Madame de 
Durfort, she informed me that Mesdames, still full of 
this project, were at length convinced that there was 
no other way to establish tranquillity at Court and 
in the Royal Family, and that to effect it they were 



70 MADAME DU BARRY 

prepared to use every means of persuasion and to en- 
deavour that the choice of the King should fall upon 
the Archduchess Elizabeth. Madame de Durfort 
added that in supporting this project she had at the 
same time suggested the language which Mesdames 
should employ towards the monarch, in order to pre- 
vail upon him to^ comply with their wishes. 

"In response, I said everything that the circum- 
stances required; I enlarged upon the personal ad- 
vantages which Mesdames would derive from securing 
in the archduchess a sure friend, who, constantly as- 
sociated with them, would be in a position to assure 
the happiness of the Royal Family by the natural 
influence which she would have over the mind of the 
King and over that of the Dauphin and future Dau- 
phiness."^ I did not forget to speak of matters likely to 
interest Madame de Durfort, and I left her persuaded 
to my view of the affair and very pleased with the 
conversation which I had had with her "" 

Madame de Durfort faithfully carried out her emr 
ployer's instructions, and, a few days later, Mesdames, 
summoning up their courage, astonished the King by 
a request that he should give them a queen, and that 
the queen should be the Archduchess Elizabeth of 
Austria. The monarch seemed at first much embar- 
rassed, affected to believe that his daughters spoke in 
jest, and enlarged upon the inconveniences inseparable 
from second marriages; but ended by laughing good- 
humouredly and agreeing to give the matter his con- 
sideration. Mesdames returned to the charge each 
time their father came to visit them, with the result 

^ Marie Antoinette, the Archduchess Elizabeth's younger 
sister. 

^^ Correspondance secrete du Conite de Mercy-Argenteau avec 
I'Empereur Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunits, par le Chevalier 
d'Arneth et M. Jules Flammermont (Paris, 1896), ii. 347. 



MADAME DU BARRY 71 

that one day they succeeded in extracting from him 
a definite promise tO' demand the archduchess in mar- 
riage, "provided that her person did not displease 
him" ; whereupon the princesses, dehghted at the sue- 
of their scheme, immediately proposed that an artist 
should be sent to Vienna to paint the archduchess. 
The King consented, and it was decided to offer the 
commission tO' Drouais. 

Things seemed to promise well, though Drouais de- 
clined the proffered commission, or rather placed a 
prohibitive price on his services,""* no doubt because, 
unknown to Mesdames, he was at that time engaged 
on twO' portraits of the favourite, to which we shall 
have occasion to refer later/^ And we are inclined to 
think that it is highly probable that Louis would have 
kept the promise he had made his daughters, had the 
efforts of the latter but been seconded by Choiseul. 
This, however, the Minister seemed unwilling to do, 
though Mercy lost no opportunity of "reminding him 
of all the reasons which ought to render such a project 
(the King's marriage) eminently agreeable and de- 
sirable to him." 

The truth is that the idea of Louis XV.'s union 
with a young princess was very far from commending 
itself to the Minister or his sister, Madame de Gra- 
mont. To rid themselves of Madame du Barry by such 
means seemed to them as unwise as for a person to 
submit to a dangerous operation for a disease which 
might conceivably never reach an acute stage. "Per- 
sons in power," wrote Mercy to Kaunitz, "imagine 
that a queen, judicious and amiable, who' would suc- 
ceed in gaining the affection of her husband, might 
open his eyes tO' the irregularities and the enormous 
abuses which exist in all departments here, and cause 
much embarrassment to those who direct them. They 
" 80,000 livres. " See p. 103, infra. 



^2 MADAME DU BARRY 

are consequently of opinion that it behoves them to 
divert the mind of the King- from ideas of marriage ; 
and I have very strong proofs that Madame de Gra- 
mont, more interested than any one in the maintenance 
of the present abuses, has succeeded in persuading 
M. de Choiseul to renounce his ov^n predilections in 
this affair."^^ 

Thus, blinded by ambition and cupidity, the 
Choiseuls prepared the way for their own fall, by re- 
jecting that which would, in all probability, have 
proved their salvation. 

Nevertheless, for several weeks the question of the 
King's re-marriage continued to be a frequent sub- 
ject of conversation between Louis XV. and his 
daughters, and Mesdames occupied themselves in 
seeking a painter to take the place of Drouais, and 
ended by recommending Ducrest. The princesses 
entertained no doubt whatever as to their father's 
sincerity; but such was not the opinion of the watchful 
Mercy, who sorrowfully admits to Kaunitz that the 
delay in sending a painter to Vienna "renders the in- 
tentions of the King so doubtful that he cannot bring 
himself to hope for a favourable issue." He adds 
that Choiseul is so much incensed against Madame du 
Barry that he and the Spanish Ambassador have ex- 
perienced the greatest difficulty in prevailing upon 
him to renounce "the rash and violent measures on 
which he appeared determined" ; but that, on the other 
hand, the Minister still clings to the belief that the 
favourite will not, after all, be presented," and, in 

*® Despatch of November l, 1768. 

" Madam'e du Deffand was of the same opinion. On January 
14 she wrote to Horace Walpole : " I suppose you know all 
about the divinity in question (Madame du Barry) ; a nymph 
brought out from the most famous retreats of Cythera and 
Paphos. No, no; I cannot believe in all that folks foresee; the 
greatest obstacles may be overcome, and one may yet be checked 
by shame, by mere decency.** 



MADAME DU BARRY 73 

consequence, cannot be persuaded to urge upon the 
King the advisabihty of marrying the Austrian arch- 
duchess. From the same letter we learn that his 
Most Christian Majesty is passing the greater part of 
his time with his new enchantress, that the public is 
murmuring and ''permitting itself the utmost freedom 
of speech," that the revenue for the past year shows 
a deficit of 38,000 million livres, that the Comptroller- 
General is at his wits' end, and that France seems 
bankrupt in both money and morals/^ 

Choiseul's belief that the presentation of Madame 
du Barry would, after all, be abandoned seemed not 
unlikely to be justified, for January 25 passed with- 
out the dreaded event taking place. Madame de 
Beam's courage, it appeared, had failed her at the 
last moment; the icy reception she had encountered 
on the occasion of a recent visit to Court had given 
her a sprained ankle, and she sent word that it was 
impossible for her to leave her room. 

The enemies of the favourite could hardly restrain 
their elation, and, indeed. Fate seemed to be playing 
into their hands, for ere Madame de Beam had had 
time to regain her courage and the use of her ankle, 
another accident — a genuine one this time — intervened 
to postpone the evil day a second time. 

On February 4, Louis XV., while hunting in the 
Forest of Saint-Germain, was thrown from his horse, 
falling heavily on his right shoulder. The pain was 
so severe that he believed that his arm was broken, 
and, according to one account, "behaved with a weak- 
ness which would have been ridiculous in a little girl 
ten years old." A litter was hastily improvised on 
which the monarch was conveyed to his carriage, and 
orders were given to return to Versailles, where, the 
news having preceded his arrival, and a report hav° 
'^ Despatch of January 24, 1769. 



74 MADAME DU BARRY 

ing spread that the accident was of an alarming char- 
acter, the Court was in a ferment of excitement, 
every one speculating as to how his or her position 
would be affected in the event of the King succumbing 
tO' his supposed injuries. 

On reaching the chateau, it was found that Louis's 
arm had swollen ;to such an extent as to render it 
necessary to cut aWay the sleeve of his coat; but an 
examination revealed that beyond a slight dislocation 
of the shoulder no harm had been done, and the ex- 
citement of the selfish courtiers speedily subsided. 
However, having regard to the King's age, the acci- 
dent was a rather severe one, and obliged him to keep 
his apartments for some time, as a result of which 
confinement he developed so alarming an attack of 
ennui that Senac, his first physician, confided to 
Mercy his fear that if his Majesty were tO' be much 
longer deprived of violent exercise, his mind would 
become affected, **a danger with which he had long 
been threatened. "^^ 

Illness invariably had the effect of temporarily de- 
taching Louis from his mistresses, and for several 
days Madame du Barry did not see the King. On 
the other hand, Mesdames were constant in their at- 
tendance upon their royal father, while the Dauphin 
and his brothers and sisters, by his Majesty's request, 
also paid several visits tO' the sick-room. The im- 
pression was general that this return to family life 
could hardly fail to make for virtue, or, at least, for 
decency; and when it was announced that the King 
had given orders for the apartments of Madame 
Adelaide, which adjoined his own, to be renovated, 
few doubted that the object was to prepare for a 
future queen, the Archduchess Elizabeth. 

The monarch recovered and resumed his visits tO' 
"Mercy to Kaunitz, March 14, 1769. 



MADAME DU BARRY 75 

his new mistress, but the weeks went by and nothing 
further was heard of the dreaded presentation. Grad- 
ually the opponents of the lady permitted their appre- 
hensions to be lulled to rest. The interest of the 
Court was transferred to other matters : the marriage 
of the Due de Chartres and Mademoiselle de Pen- 
thievre, the completion of the grande salle of the Opera 
at Versailles, the magnificent fetes which were to cele- 
brate the approaching union of the Dauphin and Marie 
Antoinette; people ceased to talk of the ^'Bourbon- 
naise." 

The astonishment and indignation, therefore, may 
be imagined when towards the middle of April the 
announcement was made that on the 22nd of the 
month his Majesty would hold a presentation, and that 
among the ladies who were to participate in the 
honour would be the Comtesse du Barry. 

The long-deferred ceremony duly took place, and 
Madame du Barry appears to have acquitted herself 
well, and to have shown commendable sang-froid in 
what the following account, given by Madame de 
Genlis, an eye-witness, will show must have been ex- 
ceedingly trying circumstances. 

*T went to the presentation of my aunt,^" and was 
highly diverted, for it was the very same day on which 
Madame du Barry was presented. It was recognised 
on all sides that she was splendidly and tastefully 
attired. By daylight, her face was passee, and her 
complexion spoiled by freckles. Her bearing was re- 
voltingly impudent, and her features far from, hand- 
some, but she had fair hair of a charming colour, 
pretty teeth, and a pleasing expression. She looked 

^^'The Marquise de Montesson. The other ladies presented 
with Madame du Barry were the Marquis-e de Gouffier, the 
Comtesse de Boisgelin, and the Comtesse de Lusignan. 



^6 MADAME DU BARRY 

extremely well at night. We reached the card-tables 
in the evening a few minutes before her. At her 
entrance, all the ladies who were near the door rushed 
tumultuously forward in the opposite direction, in 
order to avoid being seated near her, so that between 
her and the last lady in the room' there was an interval 
of four or five empty places. She regarded this 
marked and singular movement with the utmost cool- 
ness; nothing affected her imperturbable effrontery. 
When the King appeared at the conclusion of play, 
she looked at him and smiled. The King at once cast 
his eyes round the room in search of her; he ap- 
peared in an ill-humour, and almost instantly retired. 
The indignation at Versailles was unbounded;'' for 
never had anything so scandalous been seen, not even 
the triumphs of Madame de Pompadour. It was 
certainly very strange tO' see at Court Madame la 
Marquise de Pompadour, while her husband, M. 
Lenormant d'Etioles, was only a farmer-general, but 
it was still more odious to see a Ulle publique presented 
with pomp to the whole of the Royal Family. This 
and many other instances of unparalleled indecency 
cruelly degraded royalty, and, consequently, con- 
tributed to bring about the Revolution.'"^ 

The day following her presentation, which was a 
Sunday, Madame du Barry assisted at the King's 

^ Hardy, who may be considered the mouthpiece of Paris, 
says : " This event aroused great murmuring both in Paris and 
Versailles, Some interested persons rejoiced over it, but the 
greater number were in consternation." 

"^^ Memoir es de Madame de Genlis (edit. 1825), p. 89. A news- 
sheet of the time, which, however, was not improbably inspired 
by the "Roue," or some other ally of the favourite, is far more 
indulgent in its criticism : " Madame du Barry has been very 
well received by Mesdames, and even with marked graciousness. 
All the spectators admired the dignity of her bearing and the 
ease of her attitudes. The role of a lady of the Court is not 
an easy one to play at first, but Madame du Barry played it as 
if she had been long accustomed to it." 



MADAME DU BARRY ^'j 

Mass, and occupied in the chapel the place which had 
formerly been reserved for Madame de Pompadour. 
The attendance of noblemen and ladies of the Court, 
it was remarked, was unusually small, but, as a set-off 
against this, there were a number of high ecclesiastics 
in his Majesty's suite, at the head of whom was the 
Archbishop of Rheims. At the conclusion of the 
ceremony, Madame du Barry presented herself at the 
dinner of Mesdames and at that of the Dauphin, with 
the performance of which duties her installation as 
maitresse en titre may be said to have been accom- 
plished. 



CHAPTER VI 

MADAME DU BARRY had then realised her 
ambition : the post of maitresse en litre, this 
"glorious dishonour" so ardently desired by 
so many haughty and highborn dames was hers; but 
her triumph was not yet absolute. It remained for her 
to overcome the hostility of a Court which had taxed 
the resources of her brilliant predecessor to the ut- 
most before it had allowed itself to be coerced or 
cajoled into complacence; and Madame de Pompa- 
dour, though at the outset of her career she was even 
more friendless than Madame du Barry, had had to 
encounter no such powerful Minister as Choiseul, no 
such bitter antagonists of her own sex as the Duch- 
esses de Gramont and de Choiseul and the Princesse 
de Beauvau. 

The three ladies in question lost not a moment in 
proclaiming, or rather reasserting, their inflexible 
hostility to the new regime. Immediately after the 
presentation, they intimated to the King that, owing 
to the changes that had recently taken place at Court, 
they feared that their company was less agreeable to 
him than formerly, for which reason they begged to 
be excused from attendance at the suppers of the 
Petits Cabinets. Thus was dispersed that intimate 
society which Madame de Pompadour had so' skill- 
fully gathered round her, and in which Louis XV. 
had lived happily for so many years. 

Such an example was not likely to be lost upon the 
feminine portion of the Court, and during a visit to 

78 



MADAME DU BARRY 79 

Marly which followed close upon the presentation, 
the ladies showed their disapproval of his Majesty's 
choice in a manner so unmistakable that a general 
feeling of uneasiness and constraint prevailed, the 
card-tables — the visits tO' Marly were noted for the 
high play which took place"^ — were well-nigh deserted, 
and every one was relieved when the time came to re- 
turn to Versailles. 

Shunned and slighted on all sides, Madame du 
Barry was forced to take refuge in the society of 
Madame de Beam; but opposition seemed only to 
render the passion of Louis XV. the more stubborn. 
''He regards resistance to the object of his caprice," 
wrote Choiseul, "as a want of respect to his royal per- 
son; he recognises in this connection neither decency, 
nor rank, nor reputation; he believes that every one 
ought to bow before his mistress, because he honours 
her with his intimacy ; he is bold in setting at defiance 
all the rules of decorum, though in nothing else. 
Then he imagines that he has shown his power, and 
proved to his Court, to his people, to Europe, that he 
is in very truth a monarch to inspire respect." This 
is, perhaps, the only occasion on which, bearing up 
against all difficulties, Louis showed a degree of firm- 
ness and perseverance which failed him in matters of 
the first importance. 

A few days after the return of the Court to Ver- 
sailles, Louis XV., "as some consolation to Madame 
du Barry, who had made bitter complaints to the 
King about the contempt that the ladies of the Court 
manifested towards her,"' gave a supper at Bellevue, 

*And had been so for nearly a century. In 1686, the Due du 
Maine wrote to Madame de Maintenon : " As it is impossible 
to be at Marly without playing, or to find any one willing to play 
for small stakes, I lost yesterday fifty pistoles to M. de Richelieu 
and as much to the Comte de Grammont." 

^ Hardy's Journal. 



8o MADAME DU BARRY 

the beautiful chateau which Madame de Pompadour 
had built on the banks of the Seine, between Sevres 
and Meudon, in 1750, and sold to the monarch seven 
years later. The presence of eight of the haughtiest 
dames to be found at Versailles was requested, who, of 
course, had no option but to obey, though, as may be 
imagined, they did so with the worst possible grace; 
while invitations were also sent to a number of noble- 
men, amongst whom, to the general astonishment, 
Choiseul was included. 

''One would imagine/' writes Belleval, "that his 
Majesty derived amusement from seeing the cat and 
dog together;"^ but though this view of the matter 
is quite in keeping with the singular character of 
Louis XV., we are inclined to think that the invitation 
was inspired by a very different motive, namely, that 
the King desired to show the Minister that he was 
firmly resolved to support his new mistress, and to 
afford him an opportunity of becoming reconciled to 
her. A dinner au grand convert would not have 
suited his purpose so well, while Choiseul would have 
declined an invitation to Madame du Barry's apart- 
ments. Bellevue, however, was neutral ground, on 
which both parties might meet without embarrass- 
mento 

If such was the King's intention his scheme came 
to nothing. Choiseul accepted the invitation — he 
could not well refuse — took his place at table with 
Louis and the favourite, and treated the latter with 
punctilious courtesy. But, at the same time, he con- 
trived to convey the impression that he was doing 
violence to his feelings by joining the party, and that 
nothing but the respect he owed his sovereign would 
have induced him thus to compromise his dignity. 

In pursuance of his resolution to compel the Court 
* Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 120. 



MADAME DU BARRY 8i 

to accept his mistress, Louis now bestirred himself, 
with an activity very unusual in one of his indolent 
temperament, to rally people to the standard of Ma- 
dame du Barry and give her something more than a 
nominal footing at Versailles. This, as may be sup- 
possed, was no pleasant task. The men were com- 
placent enough. The King's personal friends, Riche- 
lieu, Soubise, Chauvelin, Villeroi, and others, had no 
scruples about paying homage to the new divinity; it 
was all in the day's work, so toi speak. But, in an 
affair of this nature, the masculine attitude was of 
very secondary importance indeed; it was the women 
who ruled the Court, and, in the absence of a queen 
or a dauphiness, the women followed the lead of 
Madame de Gramont and her coterie and remained 
obdurate. 

To break through the quarantine to which his mis- 
tress was subjected the King perceived that the first 
step must be to secure for her the countenance and 
support of some great lady — Madame de Beam had 
*'too much the air of an aunt on hire" to command 
any following at Court — and, accordingly, turned his 
eyes towards the old Marechale de Mirepoix, whose 
necessities, he thought, might incline her to undertake 
the role, if it carried with it a sufficiently tempting 
emolument. In this he was not mistaken. The 
Marechale de Mirepoix, who was the sister of the 
Prince de Beauvau, and had been the bosom friend of 
Madame de Pompadour, belonged tO' the Choiseul 
party, though her reluctance tO' compromise herself 
with the King had prevented her from taking an 
active part in the campaign against Madame du 
Barry. She enjoyed a very considerable income, but, 
owing to her extravagance and her passion for play, 
was continually in pecuniary difficulties, and esti- 
mated that her expenditure exceeded her receipts by 



82 MADAME DU BARRY 

nearly 20,000 livres, "which occasioned constant dis- 
order in her affairs, and subjected her daily to writs, 
executions, and all sorts of humiliations." For some 
years past, Louis, who was very fond of the old lady 
— she was one O'f the few persons who possessed the 
secret of relieving his ennui — had been in the habit of 
making her an annual gratification of 12,000 livres, to 
enable her to pacify the most importunate of her 
creditors; and the promise that this sum should be 
materially increased sufficed to secure her chaperon- 
nage for Madame du Barry. 

All the partisans of Choiseul were highly indignant 
at the defection of Madame de Mirepoix, and were 
loud in their denunciation of her conduct, declaring 
that it seemed as if she were an appanage of the post 
of favourite, to be passed on from one mistress to 
another like a piece of furniture. But, though Ma- 
dame du Deffand wrote that the marechale appeared 
"very sad and troubled, and, for the first time in her 
life, unable tO' disguise her embarrassment," the latter 
stood to her guns, and Madame du Barry, either from 
inclination or gratitude, soon became so attached tO' 
^'la petite maressale/^ as she called her new ally, that 
she could not endure to be separated from her. 

The reasons which had prompted "/a petite mares- 
sale'' to cast in her lot with the despised favourite 
were too generally understood for her tO' find many 
followers. However, the hope of procuring some ad- 
vantage for themselves or their relatives brought, 
after a while, several welcome recruits to the Du 
Barry party, prominent amongst whom were the 
Princesse de Montmorency and the Comtesse de 
Valentinois; while the Marquise de I'Hopital was 
persuaded by Soubise, whose mistress she was, to 
throw what little influence she possessed into the same 
scale. Thus Madame du Barry found herself the 



MADAME DU BARRY S^ 

centre of a group of ladies, which, whatever claim it 
may have had to consideration, could at least boast 
great names. 

One of the attributes of a mattresse en titre was to 
receive the homage of men of letters, and, in return, 
to bestow upon them her patronage and protection. 
This homage frequently took the form of flattering, 
not to say fulsome, dedications prefaced to their 
works. Thus La Fontaine had dedicated the second 
collection of his fables to Madame de Montespan,* 
Crebillon pere his Catilina to Madame de Pompadour, 
and Voltaire his Tancrede tO' the same lady. Madame 
du Barry had not long to wait for Literature to begin 
burning incense at her shrine. A few weeks after her 
presentation, a certain Chevalier de la Morliere sent 
her a copy of a work entitled, Le Fatalisme, on collec- 
tion d' anecdotes pour prouver V influence du sort stir 
Vhistoire du cceur humaine, preceded by a most com- 
plimentary dedication, wherein he assured her that 
**Nature had lavished upon her her rarest gifts," that 
"kindness, benevolence, and sweetness of disposition" 
were hers, and that, ''inspired by these estimable quali- 
ties," it would be her destiny to honour the arts and 
sciences and "all that would appear to her' worthy of 
marked distinction." 

Unfortunately for Madame du Barry, the author oi 
Le Fatalisme was very far from being a Voltaire, a 
La Fontaine, or even a Crebillon. Bachaumont de- 
scribes him as "an author better known by his knavery, 
impudence, and baseness than by his works," and in- 
deed he appears to have been a most undesirable 
protege. A man of some talent, he had commenced 

* Two years later, La Fontaine celebrated the charms of 
Madame de Montespan's youthful rival, Mademoiselle de Fon- 
tanges, whom he apostrophised as " charmant oh jet, digne 
present des cieux." 



84 MADAME DU BARRY 

his literary career by the production of several ro- 
mances, one of which, called Angola, which was pub- 
lished anonymously, had so great a vogue that it was 
attributed to Crebillon fils.^ The profits of these 
works, however, failed to accord with the writer's 
expectations, and he therefore sought to augment 
them by becoming a "dramatic critic" and levying 
blackmail upon the luckless playwrights of his time. 
The claque of which he was the head was so numerous 
and noisy that it was able tO' secure the success or 
failure of all but the productions of dramatists of 
established reputation, and managers trembled at the 
chevalier's nod. 

Emboldened by his success, he imagined that it 
would be an easy matter to secure the triumph of any 
work of his own. But in this he was mistaken, as, 
though the poor actors did not dare to refuse his 
plays, they failed lamentably, notwithstanding the skil- 
ful manoeuvres of his friends, ''sustained by the zeal- 
ous efforts of his creditors." After this his influence 
declined rapidly, and he became an object of ridicule 
and contempt to those who^ had formerly solicited his 
suffrages. Finding himself compelled to seek a fresh 
field for the exercise of his talents, he established a 
sort of academy for embryo actresses, and cheated his 
pupils SO' outrageously that his relatives were forced 
to shut him up, on the plea of insanity, to save him 
from a worse fate. On his release, he resumed his 
literary pursuits, and when Madame du Barry rose to 
favour, hastened to make a bid for her patronage. 

La Morliere's dedication secured him a ready sale 

^ He was also the author of a work entitled, Les Lauriers ec- 
clesiastiques, ou campagnes de I'Ahhe de T. , . ., which bears 
the distinction of being one of the most obscene in the French 
language. It was suppressed, and the few copi'es which escaped 
the vigilance of the police now command a very high price, and 
are "tres recherches par les lib er tins." 



MADAME DU BARRY 85 

for his book and an invitation to sup with the countess, 
who accorded him **a gracious reception/' and a pres- 
ent of one hundred louis. Here, however, his connec- 
tion with Madame du Barry seems to have ended, very 
probably because the lady was annoyed by the ridicule 
to which the adulation of a person of such chequered 
antecedents exposed her. 

Other men of letters followed La Morliere's ex- 
ample, and among the volumes in the Versailles Li- 
brary bearing the arms and device of Madame du 
Barry are four works prefaced by dedications to the 
favourite. 

The first of these is entitled: Le Royalisme, ou 
Memoires de du Barry de Saint-Aunef et de Constance 
de Cezelli, sa femme^ anecdotes hero'iques sous Henry 
IV., par M. de Limairac. The author in his dedica- 
tion announces that heroism is the heritage of every 
Du Barry. 

The second is an almanac for the year 1774, called 
the Almanack de Flore, printed in red, with a portrait 
of Madame du Barry as a sunflower turned to the sun, 
numerous illustrations, horoscopes, and so forth. It 
was the work of a certain M. Douin, "captain of 
cavalry," assisted by a M. Chevalier, "lieutenant of 
infantry," and one Douin, "formerly soldier of in- 
fantry." 

The remaining works are by writers of considerable 
reputation, at least in their own day. One, a trans- 
lation from the Idyllen of Salomon Gessner, is from 
the pen of Jacques Henri Meister, the friend of 
Diderot and Grimm, who addresses the new mistress 
of Louis XV. in the following terms : 

" De la beaute, I'es talents et les arts 
Cherissent tous raimable empire. 
Que I'eglogue au na'if sourire 
Arrete un instant vos regards! 



8^ MADAME DU BARRY 

Comme vous, belle sans parure, 
Elle doit tout aux mains de la nature. 
Comme vous, elle a quelquefois 
Sous I'air d'une simple bergere, 
Charme les heros et les rois. 



The other, a poetical recueil containing two comic 
operas, Les Etrennes de V Amour, and Le Nouveau 
Marie, is by Madame du Barry's friend, Cailhava; 
and the favourite finds herself apostrophised on the 
first page as "beautiful Cytherea" and "amiable 
Hebe."' 

^E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 65 noto.. Querard's 
La France litteraire, passim. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE new favourite was soon afforded an op^ 
portunity of using ,her influence in a more 
worthy manner than in patronising sycophantic 
men of letters. 

Although the punishments meted out to evil-doers 
in the eighteenth century were still reminiscent of the 
dark ages, the right of pardon possessed by the Crown 
was very rarely exercised. Louis XV., so Indulgent 
towards his own follies and vices, was far from being 
so towards those of others, and was but little inclined 
to interfere with the course of the law, even in cases 
where a manifest injustice had been perpetrated; the 
Queen never had any influence with her husband or 
his Ministers after the first few years of her married 
life; Madame de Mailly, charitable and kind-hearted 
though she was, could never be persuaded to meddle 
with matters which did not immediately concern her; 
Madame de Chateauroux's reign was, of course, too 
shoirt for her to have much opportunity for deeds of 
mercy ; while Madame de Pompadour, who could have 
dictated her will to the Chancellor as to the other 
Ministers, was far more ready to people the dungeons 
than tO' open them. 

The condemned criminal had, therefore, up to the 
present, lacked an intercessor, but in Madame du 
Barry he was to find a very efficient one. Whatever 
may have been the faults of the new mistress — and, 
apart from her unchastity, prodigality and love of dis- 
play are, after all, the only charges which can be truth- 

87 



88 MADAME DU BARRY 

fully brought against her — there can be no question 
that she was a woman of genuine kindness of disposi- 
tion in whose heart the sight of suffering never failed 
to awaken a responsive echo ; and on several occasions 
during her favour we find her intervening with suc- 
cess on behalf of those who would otherwise have 
suffered the extreme penalty of the law. 

Two of these cases occurred in the summer of 1769, 
only a few weeks after her recognition as Madame de 
Pompadour's successor. 

Harsh as was the old French law, it was particularly 
so in regard to infanticide. An edict of Henri H., 
bearing date February 1556, prescribed that a woman 
convicted of concealing her pregnancy should, in the 
event of her child's death, be adjudged guilty of homi- 
cide and punished accordingly. This law was still in 
force, and in virtue of it, in June 1769, a girl named 
Appoline Gregeois, of the parish of Liancourt, in the 
Vexin, whose offence had been aggravated by several 
petty thefts, committed, apparently, with the view of 
providing for her accouchement, was brought to trial 
and condemned to death. 

The case, in some way, was brought to the notice of 
Madame du Barry, who, touched with compassion, at 
once interested herself on the unhappy young woman's 
behalf. At her solicitation the procureur-general 
granted a respite, and, a week later, she had the satis- 
faction of learning that the capital sentence had been 
commuted to one of three years' imprisonment. 

A fortnight after the favourite's successful interven- 
tion on behalf of Appoline Gregeois, her good offices 
were again requisitioned, on this occasion to save a 
high and puissant seigneur and his lady from the con- 
sequences of armed resistance to the officers of the law, 
which in those days was construed into rebellion 
against the King. As this case, besides being one of 



MADAME DU BARRY 89 

the most sensational of the reign, contributed not a 
little towards reconciling the nobility to the new re- 
gime, it is deserving of something more than passing 
mention. 

On the borders of Champagne and the Orleanais 
stood an old, ruinous chateau called Parc-Vieil, the 
seat of a certain Comte and Comtesse de Loiiesme. 
Like the chateau, the family of Loiiesme had fallen on 
evil times; their estates had been sequestrated and 
their personal property as well; but, as they had pro- 
claimed their determination of resisting vi et armis 
any attempt to seize the latter, they were, for some 
time, left in undisturbed possession of their old home. 

As ill-luck would have it, however, in the summer 
of 1768, the bailiwick in which the chateau of Parc- 
Vieil was situated passed into the hands of a certain 
Dorcy, *'a man of resolute character and an astute 
practitioner," who had no sooner been informed of the 
facts of the case than he determined to bring the Comte 
and Comtesse de Loiiesme to reason without a mo- 
ment's delay. Accordingly, on July i, between three 
and four o'clock in the morning, he arrived at Parc- 
Vieil, accompanied by two bailiffs named Jolivet and 
Chamon and the marechaussee, or mounted gendarm- 
erie, of Saint-Fargeau and Courtenay. 

Although not precisely a stronghold, Parc-Vieil was 
far from an easy place to take by storm, as it was 
surrounded by a deep moat, the place of the draw- 
bridge, which had long since broken down, being sup- 
plied by planks, which were removed at night. Dorcy 
summoned the garrison to surrender; the count and 
countess appeared on the battlements, and defied him 
to do his worst, upon which, perceiving that further 
argument would be useless, the besiegers threw a 
bridge across the moat and advanced to the assault. 

The Comte de Loiiesme's threats of armed resistance, 



90 MADAME DU BARRY 

however, had been no idle talk. Hurrying down to 
the door, he thrust the barrel of a gun through a loop- 
hole, and threatened to fire upon the enemy if they ap- 
proached a step nearer. The bailiff Jolivet seized the 
gun by the muzzle and attempted to wrest it from 
the grasp of the infuriated nobleman, with the result 
that it went off, and a general engagement ensued, in 
the course of which the Comtesse de Loiiesme, who 
had come to her husband's assistance, fired at Jolivet, 
wounding him mortally. Another of the attacking 
party was also fatally injured, and, in the end, Dorcy 
was compelled to^ raise the siege. 

TwO' days passed, which were utilised by the gar- 
rison in strengthening their defences, and by Dorcy in 
collecting reinforcements, and, on the night of July 3, 
quite an army appeared before the chateau, composed 
of the marechaussee of Saint-Fargeau, Courtenay, and 
Montargis, and a number of armed peasants, who had 
been called upon to support the majesty of the law. 
A second engagement followed, in which Godard, the 
coachman of the Loiiesmes and an old retainer of the 
family, was killed, and the countess herself slightly 
wounded, whereupon the count yielded to the en- 
treaties of his terrified servants and surrendered. 

The affair caused an immense sensation, for though 
such incidents had been common enough during the 
anarchy of the Fronde, they had since been of very rare 
occurrence."^ As the persons implicated were of high 
rank, it was deemed inexpedient to leave the matter 
to the jurisdiction of the local courts, and, accordingly, 

^ There had, howev'er, been a somewhat similar affair fourteen 
3'-ears earher, when the Marquis de Pleumartin, a nobleman of 
Poitou, for whose arrest a warrant had been issued, not the com- 
mander of the marechaussee who had come to arrest him. He 
was condemned to be beheaded, but, in order to spare his family 
the ignominy of a public execution, he was strangled in prison. — 
Journal du Marquis d'Argenson, January 1755, cited by M. VateU 



MADAME DU BARRY 91 

the King issued letters patent directing that the case 
should be tried by the Parliament of Paris. For some 
reason, however, the trial was postponed for a year, 
and it was not until July 4, 1769, that the count and 
countess were arraigned before the Grande Chambre 
and Tournelle sitting together. 

The prisoners had practically no defence, and the 
only plea that their advocate could find to put forward 
was that the first execution had been irregular, inas- 
much as Dorcy and his followers had commenced hos- 
tilities before sunrise. This was promptly overruled, 
and five witnesses having deposed that the Comtesse 
de Loiiesme had fired the shot which had been re- 
sponsible for the death of the unfortunate Jolivet, both 
she and her husband were condemned to be beheaded, 
the sentence to be carried out on the following day.'' 

The rank of the condemned, their connection with 
several persons high in favour at Court, and particu- 
larly the fact that they were related to the Chancellor, 
Maupeou, combined to induce the belief that the capi- 
tal sentence would be immediately commuted. The 
astonishment, therefore, was profound when it became 
known that the Chancellor had refused to take any 
steps on their behalf, declaring that the crime was one 
which the King's oath forbade him to pardon ; and that 
Louis XV., acting doubtless on his Minister's advice, 
had turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the Com- 
tesse de Moyon, the daughter of the Loiiesmes, and 
replied that the law must take its course. 

It was then that a friend of the unhappy pair deter- 
mined to address himself to the Comtesse de Beam 
and, through her, to Madame du Barry, in the hope 

^ Occasionally when the sentence was pronounced in the morn- 
ing, it was executed the same day. Thus, in November 1746, 
the procureur-general sent a placet ordering the release of one 
Guillaume Cor, to which the reply was : " Remission. Affair 
concluded. Guillaume Cor has been hanged." 



92 MADAME DU BARRY 

that the latter, whose sympathy had been so readily 
aroused by the misfortunes of a poor peasant-girl, 
might not be unwilling to interest herself in those of 
offenders of a more exalted station. 

The favourite at once promised to use her influence 
on the side of mercy, and, hastening to the King, threw 
herself on her knees before him and announced her 
intention of remaining in that position until his 
Majesty accorded her prayer. Louis, who had re- 
mained unmoved by the tears and supplications of the 
Comtesse de Moyon, was not proof against the en- 
treaties of his beautiful mistress, and, raising her 
up, exclaimed : " Madame, I am enchanted that the 
first favour you obtain from me should be an act of 
humanity.'* 

The sentence on the Comte and Comtesse de 
Loiiesme was commuted tO' imprisonment, and they 
were confined in the Chateau of Saumur, their rela- 
tives being charged with the expense of their main- 
tenance. In 1778, their detention, in its turn, was 
commuted to banishment; Louis XV., at the same 
time, granting them a small pension. 

Not even the bitterest critic of Madame du Barry 
has ever ventured to suggest that the countess's con- 
duct in this affair was prompted by any other motive 
than humanity ; nevertheless, it had all the results of a 
most skilful political move. Not only did it afford a 
striking proof of the lady's influence over the King, 
and thus decide many waverers tO' accord her their sup- 
port, but, by inspiring a belief that this influence 
would be exercised in no unworthy manner, it con- 
ciliated not a few of those who had hitherto opposed 
her from disinterested motives. Outside the Court, 
too, it produced a strong reaction in her favour; Vol- 
taire, in a letter to the Comtesse de Rochefort, ex- 
presses his conviction that Madame du Barry was "a 



MADAME DU BARRY 93 

kind-hearted woman" (une bonne femme), and this 
opinion appears to have been widespread. ''No one, 
unless he had personal motives for enmity to the 
favourite," writes Pidansat, in one of his rare exctir- 
sions into the truth, ''could fail to like her, and to re- 
ject the impressions that prejudiced people and her 
enemies had spread abroad about her; she was so 
courteous, affable, and gentle. She had the virtue, 
rare, especially among her own sex, of never speaking 
ill of any one, and never permitting herself complaints 
and reproaches against those who envied her and 
those who had not only published abroad the not too 
creditable stories of her life, but had embroidered 
them with infamies and enormities."' 

Madame de Montespan had had her Clagny, 
Madame de Pompadour her Bellevue, her Crecy, and 
her La Celle; it was, therefore, only in accordance 
with precedent that Madame du Barry should possess 
a country-seat befitting her high position; and on 
July 24, a fortnight after the arrival of the Court on 
its annual visit to Compiegne, Louis XV. presented his 
new favourite with a brevet conferring upon her the 
tenancy for life of the beautiful chateau and estate of 
Louveciennes, situated a short distance from the left 
bank of the Seine and adjoining the park of Marly/ 

^Anecdotes, i. 152. 
*Here is the brevet: 

"Brevet of the gift of the pavilion of Louvetiennes 
in favour of madame la comtesse du Barri, 

" Of July 24, 1769. 
"To-day, twenty- fourth of July, seventeen hundred and sixty- 
nine, the King being at Compiegne, and being desirous of giving 
to the dame comtesse du Barry a mark of the consideration with 
which his Majesty honours her, has accorded and made to her 
a gift of the pavilion of Louvetiennes, its gardens, and depend- 
encies, the 'enjoyment of which has already been accorded by 
his Majesty to the comtesse de Toulouse, and after her to Mgr. 
le due de Penthievre, who has surrendered it, in order that the 



94 MADAME DU BARRY 

The estate of Louveciennes, frequently abbreviated 
into Luciennes, originally belonged to a Marquis de 
Beringhen, who, in the year 1690, sold it to Louis 
XIV., or, to speak more precisely, exchanged it for 
another property, that of Chatellenie-de-Tournan, in 
Brie. At this period there was no house upon the 
estate, but Louis XIV. built one as a residence for 
Baron Deville, the Flemish engineer, who designed the 
famous hydraulic machine at Marly. Deville left 
France in 1708, whereupon the house was transformed 
into a little chateau and presented for life to Mad- 
emoiselle de Clermont, daughter of the Prince de 
Conde and Mademoiselle de Nantes, upon whose death 
in 1 74 1, Louis XV. gave it to the Comtesse de Tou- 
louse, in recognition, it is believed, of her services in 
the King's amours with the sisters de Nesle.^ The 
countess died in January 1766, and was succeeded as 
tenant by her only son, the Due de Penthievre. But, 
a year later, the duke's heir, the young Prince de 
Lamballe, who had recently married Marie Therese 
de Savoie, Princesse de Carignan, the beautiful and 
unfortunate lady who met so horrible a fate during 
the Revolution, died there also, the victim of a pain- 
ful disease; and his father, unwilling to reside any 
longer in a house which possessed for him such pain- 
ful associations, gave the property back to the King." 

said dame comtesse du Barry may enjoy during her life the said 
pavilion and such dependencies as belong and appertain to it, 
in conformity with the plan deposed at the office of Director- 
General of his Majesty's Board of Works. . . . And, in assur- 
ance of his will, his Majesty has signed with his own hand the 
pres'ent brevet, and caused it to be countersigned by me, under- 
secretary of State and his orders. (Signed) Louis (and, lower 
down,) Phely-peaux." — Archives nationales, Registre des Bre- 
vets, cited by E. and J. de Goncourt, La Du Barry, p. 64 note. 

''The Due de Luynes, who describes the view from Louve- 
ciennes as charming and the house as very beautiful, says that 
the Queen had asked for it, but had been refused. 

^ Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 254. 



MADAME DU BARRY 95 

It is somewhat difficult to understand why Louve- 
ciennes should have been chosen as the country-seat of 
a royal favourite, as the enjoyment to be derived from 
the beautiful view which its windows commanded must 
have been largely discounted by the fact that the 
hydraulic machine, with its unceasing clang, was 
situated immediately below the house ; while the build- 
ing itself was far too small to accommodate even 
Madame du Barry's retinue of servants, to say noth- 
ing of the numerous entourage which etiquette de- 
manded should accompany the King whenever he 
honoured one of his subjects by a visit. 

The hydraulic machine, unfortunately, could not well 
be removed even to gratify Madame du Barry, but 
everything that money could effect towards remedying 
the architectural deficiencies was done, and extensive 
additions and alterations were designed by Jacques 
Ange Gabriel, first architect to the King, and carried 
out by his son, the Comptroller of Buildings at 
Marly. 

These additions and alterations, which included the 
restoration of part of the chateau and the making of 
a bath-room and an orangery, were commonly re- 
ported to have involved the expenditure of enormous 
sums, but, according to a memoir of Gabriel, the total 
cost of the work was under 139,000 livres. 

'^The principal dispositions of the building having 
remained unchanged," says M. Vatel, "one is still able 
to give a description of this residence. It consisted, on 
the ground floor, of an entrance-hall or vestibule 20 
feet by 18, the lofty ceiling of which is decorated by a 
frieze, delicately sculptured, representing children at 
play. Then comes the dining-room, adorned with a 
beautiful old wainscot, ornamented with all the at- 
tributes of the country and the chase. Harvesters' 
rakes and hats, hunting horns and cymbals, arrows and 



96 MADAME DU BARRY 

quivers, all indicate the pleasures of the fields. In the 
centre of one side of the room is a magnificent marble 
chimney-piece. 

"The salon is decorated in the same style. Its 
length is 4 toises, its height 2 J^ toises ; it is lighted by 
two large windows, and is approached by a glass door 
giving on tO' a flight of steps. The wainscot shows the 
same intersections as the dining-room, violins and 
shepherds' pipes, bagpipes and guitars, phoenix and 
peacock, and all around a frieze representing figures of 
women and children, 

"Above, on the first floor, was situated the apart- 
ment of Madame du Barry, which faced north, while 
on the south side was that of the King; later, the 
Due de Brissac's.^ 

"The main building was prolonged by a gallery of 
considerable length, which was used as an orangery, 
and at the end of this was a chapel."^ 

The visit of the Court to Compiegne did not termi- 
nate without an unpleasant incident, occasioned by 
the continued hostility of Choiseul to the new fa- 
vourite. 

For the purpose of giving the Dauphin and his 
brothers some instruction in military matters, a 
"pleasure camp" was formed at Verberie, in the plain 
of Royal-Lieu, under the command of Baron Wiirm- 
ser, Lieutenant-General and Chief-Inspector of the 
German infantry regiments in the French service. 
The manoeuvres, which lasted three days, were wit- 
nessed by Louis XV., his three grandsons, Mesdames 
— and Madame du Barry; and Dumouriez, who had 
known the lady in the days when she presided over the 

'Louis H'ercule Timoleon de Cosse, Due de Brissac (1734- 
1792), the penultimate lover of Madame du Barry. 
^ Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 264. 



MADAME DU BARRY 97 

menage of the "Roue/' and had lately returned frorn 
Germany, was profoundly shocked at "the sight of 
the old King of France degrading himself by stand- 
ing with doffed hat beside a magnificent phaeton, in 
which the Du Barry was reclining/" 

Among the troops assembled at Verberie was the 
Regiment de Beauce, in which Elie du Barry, younger 
brother of Jean and Guillaume, held a commission. 
An exchange of civilities took place between the 
favourite and the officers of her brother-in-law's regi- 
ment ; the officers invited Madame du Barry tO' dine in 
the camp, and she, in her turn, entertained them to a 
magnificent banquet. Indeed, so excellent an under- 
standing prevailed that when, on the last day of the 
manoeuvres, the favourite's carriage passed down the 
line, the Chevalier de la Tour-du-Pin, the colonel of 
the Regiment de Beauce, thought that he could do no 
less than order his men to present arms, an honour 
hitherto expressly reserved on these occasions for the 
King and members of the Royal Family. 

Choiseul, who, in his capacity as Minister of War, 
had also attended the manoeuvres, was highly incensed 
at the unprecedented marks of distinction accorded to 
his enemy, and severely reprimanded all concerned. 
His action was duly reported to Louis XV., who there- 
upon wrote him the following letter : 

Louis XV. to the Due de Choiseul. 

"As I have promised to tell you all that occurs to 
me concerning you, I now acquit myself of that task. 

"It is said that you rated Wiirmser, for what reason 
I know not, but that you let fall a good round oath,^ 

"It is said that you rated the Chevalier de la Tour- 

' La Vie et les memoires du General Dumouries (edit Berville 
and Barriere), i. 141. 
*** The word in the original is too coarse for modern print 



98 MADAME DU BARRY 

du-Pin, because Madame du Barry dined in the camp, 
and because the majority of the officers dined with her 
on the day of the review. 

*'You also reprimanded Foulon," in his turn. 

*'You promised that I should hear no more from 
you about her." 

*'I speak to you in confidence and friendship. You 
may be inveighed against in public; it is the fate of 
Ministers, especially when they are believed tO' be 
antagonist to the friends of the master; but, for all 
that, the master is always very satisfied with their 
work, and with yours in particular." 

Choiseul replies at great length, endeavouring to 
justify his conduct; which, he maintains, has been 
grossly, and purposely, misrepresented, and expressly 
disclaiming all hostilities to Madame du Barry. 

After acknowledging, in suitable terms, the expres- 
sions of kindness and confidence which the King's 
letter contained, he declares that his Majesty must 
know, "in the bottom of his soul," that he (Choiseul) 
is the particular object of the hatred of those about 
Madame du Barry. These he divides into twO' classes : 
"persons of seventy years of age and upwards"" and 
"young persons." His Majesty, he says, will know 
how much credit to attach to the statements and 
motives of the former ; as for the latter, "who imagine 
that they are doing something wonderful in deriding 
and braving your Minister," they merely excite 
contempt. 

" Joseph Frangois Foulon de Doue, who said, or was reported 
to have said, that if the poor lacked bread, they could eat grass, 
and was hanged by the mob of Paris, July 22, 1789. He was at 
this time commissatre des guerres. 

"From this it would appear that Choiseul had at length at- 
tempted some remonstrance with the King in regard to Madame 
du Barry, very probably after the supper at Bellevue. 

" The Due de Richelieu. 



MADAME DU BARRY 99 

He denies that he rated Baron Wurmser, for it is 
not rating to say, ''My dear Wiirmser, hasten; the 
King has been waiting half an hour." Never had 
he used improper language towards any officer. 
"Wurmser is here and can speak the truth." 

He continues : 

"As regards the Regiment de Beauce, there is nO' 
more truth in that, though there is more appearance 
of truth. I never rated the Chevalier de la Tour-du- 
Pin; I never spoke to him about either giving or 
accepting a dinner. I am. Sire, a thousand leagues 
above such wretched trifles. The day on which your 
Majesty witnessed the manoeuvres of the forty-two 
battalions, word was brought me that the Regiment 
de Beauce, after your Majesty had passed down the 
line, had saluted and rendered the same honours to 
Madame du Barry as to yourself. I did not say a 
word to the person who brought me the information. 
In the evening, in my apartments, the same thing was 
repeated, but I appeared to pay no attention to it. 
The following day, on going to see this brigade ma- 
noeuvre, I told M. de Rochambeau that it had been re- 
ported to me that the Regiment de Beauce had saluted 
other carriages than those of the Royal Family while 
his Majesty was in front of the line; that that was 
not right ; and I charged him to warn M. de la Tour- 
du-Pin that he ought not to salute any one else when 
the King was in camp." 

The Minister then points out that La Tour-du-Pin 
has been promoted to the rank of brigadier, and that 
all the requests made by the officers of his regiment 
(presumably for leave) have been granted, "which 
proves that there is no ill-humour on my part." 

As for Foulon, "who is what is called an intriguer, 
with boundless ambition," he had not even so much as 
spoken to^him since coming to Compiegne, and if he 
Memoirs — i Vol. 2 



loo MADAME DU BARRY 

asserted that he had been reprimanded at any time, 
"under any circumstances whatever," in reference to 
Madame du Barry or anything which could possibly 
concern her, then "M. Foulon is an impudent liar." 

He concludes : 

"These details are a trifle long. Sire, for which I 
crave your indulgence; but it behoves me to tell you 
the truth in regard to these small matters, in order that 
you may be able to appreciate in future the reports 
which may reach you. You will be told, Sire, that I 
have faults; I earnestly desire to correct myself of 
them, and I reproach myself, in private, with them as 
bitterly as my enemies can do. They will add that 
I have committed mistakes as Minister; that is only 
too true; when I have been aware of them I have 
avowed them, and I am more sensible than any one can 
be of my imperfections and the limitation of my 
talents. But, Sire, I beg you to be persuaded that I 
fear neither the intriguers nor the results of criticism. 
I have two objects only, that of serving you well and of 
pleasing you. It is impossible for me not to believe 
that I serve your Majesty well, because I serve you to 
the best of my endeavour. It is difficult, Sire, for you 
to entertain any doubt as to my desire to please you, 
if you condescend to reflect that I hold everything 
from you ; that I neither hold nor have ever desired to 
hold anything except from you; that you unite for 
me all the sentiments of duty, of personal attachment, 
and of gratitude, and that I serve you by affection, and 
by affection the most zealous, which is better than am- 
bition and talents."" 

Although Jean du Barry could not, of course, ai>- 
pear at Court, he was none the less an important f ac- 

^^ Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. p. 49 et seq. The letters were 
communicated to this journal by Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, the 
Minister's nephew and successor, who possessed the originals. 



MADAME DU BARRY loi 

tor in the political situation. He had persuaded the 
favourite to obtain for his ugly, but keen-witted, 
sister "Chon'' apartments in the chateau at Versailles 
and, through her, contrived to keep himself in constant 
communication with his former mistress, who enter- 
tained a high Dpinion of his astuteness and never 
failed to apply tO' him for advice whenever she found 
herself in any difficulty. 

In consequence of the incident at the review, the 
"Roue" came to Compiegne, charged by Madame du 
Barry with a mission of conciliation. Being some- 
what doubtful as to the reception which his over- 
tures might meet with were he to seek a personal inter- 
view with Choiseul, he addressed himself to the 
Minister's nephew, the Due de Lauzun,^^ and begged 
him tO' meet him the following morning in the forest, 
as he had something of the utmost importance to 
communicate. Not a little mystified, Lauzun con- 
sented, and found that Du Barry was desirous that he 
should take upon himself the role of peacemaker be- 
tween his uncle and the favourite. 

"He complained to me,'' says the duke, "of the 
bitterness which the Due de Choiseul evinced towards 
Madame du Barry and himself ; said that she was will- 
ing tO' do justice to so great a Minister and desired 
ardently to live on good terms with him, and that he 
would not force her to become his enemy ; that she had 
more influence with the King than Madame de Pom- 
padour had ever had, and that she would be very 
grieved if he compelled her to use it to his detriment. 
He begged me to relate this conversation to M. de 
Choiseul and to convey to him all sorts of protesta- 
tions of attachment." 

Lauzun good-naturedly promised to do all in his 

" Choiseul and Lauzun's father, the Due de Gontaut, had mar- 
ried two sisters, the demoiselles Crozat. 



102 MADAME DU BARRY 

power to promote a better understanding; but, alas? 
his efforts were vain. When he reached Choiseurs 
apartments, he found Madame de Gramont there, con- 
certing with her brother new schemes for the discom- 
fiture of her hated rival. With the eyes of his vindic- 
tive sister upon him, the duke received the favourite's 
overtures "with all the haughtiness of a Minister who 
is harassed by women and believes that he has nothing 
to fear," and declared that there was "war to the 
knife" between him and Madame du Barry; while 
Madame de Gramont "made some outrageous re- 
marks, in which she did not spare even the King."^^ 

In order to- show his contempt for the favourite and 
her supporters, Choiseul, a few days later, quitted 
Compiegne and spent some weeks in visiting his coun- 
try-seat at Chanteloup and various military stations 
in Lorraine, thus leaving the field clear for his ad- 
versaries. 

On the return of the Court from Compiegne, to- 
wards the end of August, Louis XV. paid a visit to the 
Prince de Conde, at Chantilly, and Madame du Barry 
was officially invited to accompany him. The descen- 
dant of the hero of Rocroix had long since decided to 
bow to the royal will, and had the new mistress been 
a foreign princess she could hardly have been received 
with greater honours, her host placing his own 
caleche at her disposal when she wished to follow the 
chase, seating her beside him at table, and "seeming, 
in short, to dedicate to her the flowers, the illumina- 
tions, and the fanfares of his fetes.'^ 

^'^Memoires du Due de Lauzun (edit. 1858), p. 95 et seq. 



CHAPTER VIII 

IN September, the Salon of the Louvre, which at 
this period was held every alternate year, opened 
its doors. The centre of attraction proved to be 
two portraits of the new favourite, both by Drouais, 
who had painted the last portrait of Madame de Pom- 
padour, now at Hampton Court. ''The better to en- 
sure success," says Pidansat, "he had conceived the 
idea of representing Madame du Barry in twO' styles, 
that is tO' say, in both masculine and feminine attire." 
In the first, she is wearing a kind of hunting-coat and 
a waistcoat with military facings. ''She has a flat 
coiffure, and two or three patches placed here and there 
relieve the mischievousness of this charming and saucy 
little face."^ In the second, she appears "fresh and 
laughing, with the innocence of a young Flora," in a 
white gown adorned with a wreath of flowers, and 
with a string of pearls on her shoulder. 

The former portrait, we are told, appealed most to 
the ladies, and the latter to the men, which gave rise to 
the following verses : 

"Quels yeux! que d'attraits ! qu'elle est belle! 

Est-ce une divinite? 
Non, c'est une simple mortelle, 

Qui le dispute a la Beaute. 

Entre vous qui decidera. 

Beau cavalier, aimable Flore! 

L'Olympe jaloux se taira, 
Et I'univers surpris admire et doute encore." 

Diderot criticises these portraits very severely, ex- 
pressing his opinion that the painter had ruined his 

^ E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 74. 
^ Memoires de Favrolle, ii. 47- 

103 



I04 MADAME DU BARRY 

work by over-anxiety to do himself justice, and even 
going so far as tO' insinuate that, but for the fact that 
the original happened to be the talk of the town, they 
would be unworthy even of passing mention; but the 
majority of frequenters of the Salon cared little for 
artistic merit, and the crowd which surrounded them 
was so great that Horace Walpole, who was then in 
Paris, renounced his intention of visiting the exhibi- 
tion. 

Both portraits have been several times engraved. 
The best engraving of Madame du Barry en habit de 
chasse is Beauvarlet's ; that of the portrait a la guir- 
lande, as it is generally called, by Gaucher. 

The homage paid to Madame du Barry by the 
Prince de Conde was a happy augury for the future. 
When the Court returned to Versailles, it soon became 
apparent that the quarantine to which the favourite had 
hitherto been subjected was steadily relaxing; scarcely 
a day now passed on which some nobleman or grande 
dame did not come to the conclusion that the claims of 
loyalty, or self-interest, demanded the sacrifice of per- 
sonal feelings; scarcely a day now passed on which 
fresh faces did not appear at the new mistress's toilette, 
fresh voices whisper compliments in her ear. And 
Madame du Barry, even her enemies were compelled to 
admit, conducted herself, in these early days of her 
reign, with exemplary discretion, and used her newly 
acquired power with the strictest moderation. For- 
eigners, like Horace Walpole, were surprised to find 
in her neither boldness, nor arrogance, nor affecta- 
tion.' She seemed to shun publicity, was at pains to 
avoid exciting the jealousy of her own sex, and gave 

'"Thence to the Chapel, where a first row In the balconies 
was kept for us. Madame du Barri arrived over against us be- 
low, without rouge, without powder, and indeed sans avoir fait 
sa toilette; an odd appearance, as she was so conspicuous, close 



MADAME DU BARRY 105 

as yet no indication of the absurd ostentation and wild 
extravagance which were tO' mark the coming years. 

But if the growing behef that the King's passion 
was a lasting one, and the skilful self-effacement of 
the favourite cost the opposition many of its ad- 
herents, there was no diminution in the hostility of 
those who remained ; indeed, with each fresh desertion 
from their cause, Choiseul and his partisans seemed 
only to become more rancorous, more resolute than 
ever to prosecute the campaign until one or other 
party was driven from the field. 

Madame du Barry did not seek to play a political 
role ; she had not the smallest desire to make and un- 
make Ministers, select Ambassadors, appoint generals, 
and confer pensions and places, as her predecessor had 
done. All she asked was tO' live in peace and quiet as 
the King's mistress, to wear ravishing toilettes and 
costly jewels, to take the air in a gilded coach, to have 
a retinue of servants at her beck and call, and gener- 
ally to enjoy the good things of life. Easy and pacific 
by nature, she would never have dreamed of injuring 
Choiseul had he not been the first tO' commence hos- 
tilities. She showed, indeed, as M. Maugras, the 
duke's latest biographer freely admits, the most meri- 
torious patience and long-suffering under great provo- 
cation, and on several occasions made advances which 
plainly showed her desire for a better understanding.* 

Left to himself, it is probable that Choiseul would 
have ended by becoming reconciled to the favourite. 

to the altar and amidst both Court and people. She is prett)'' 
when you consider her; yet so little striking, that I should never 
have asked who she was. There is nothing bold, assuming, or 
affected in her manner. Her husband's sister was along with her. 
In the tribune above, surrounded by prelates, was the amorous 
and still handsome King. One could not help smiling at the 
mixture of piety, pomp, and carnality." — Horace Walpole to 
George Montagu, September 17, 1769. 
^ Le Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 



io6 MADAME DU BARRY 

Like most powerful Ministers, he had made many and 
bitter enemies, and could hardly fail to perceive the 
danger of adding to their number a person whose in- 
fluence was increasing daily. Moreover, Madame du 
Barry asked nothing which he could not have conceded 
without loss of dignity. She did not demand his friend- 
ship, much less his homage; she would have been well 
content had he only been willing to remain neutral. 

But Madame de Gramont and the Princesse de 
Beauvau had committed themselves far too deeply to 
draw back now, or allow their relative to do so. Peace 
with the favourite, they considered, would have in- 
volved a sacrifice of their pride, an intolerable hu- 
miliation in the eyes of all the ladies of the Court, 
whose leaders they aspired to be, and was not to be 
thought of for a moment ; and Choiseul, yielding to the 
influence of his entourage, turned a deaf ear to the 
counsels of prudence, and marched steadily to his fall.^ 

In appearance, the relations between the Minister 
and the mistress were courteous, as had been the case 
between Madame de Pompadour and the most im- 
placable of her enemies, the Comte d' Argenson, though 
in that instance neither party had had the least desire 
for a reconciliation. Madame du Barry wrote fre- 
quently to Choiseul, and always in very gracious terms. 
There were also several lengthy interviews between 
them, one of which lasted for three hours. But noth- 
ing could overcome the antipathy of the duke, who 
almost invariably refused the requests which the 
countess made tO' him. "A fortnight ago," writes 
Walpole, "the mistress sent for him (Choiseul) to 
ask a favour for a dependant. He replied that she 
might come to him. She insisted, and he went, and 
stayed above an hour, and yet did not grant what she 
asked." The writer expresses his opinion that "it was 
'Walpole to Mann, October g, 1769. 



MADAME DU BARRY 107 

a thousand to one that some eclat would happen" 
during the approaching visit to Fontainebleau, when 
Madame de Gramont and the Princesse de Beauvau 
("the Choiseul-women"), who were then visiting 
friends abroad, would have returned/ 

Louis XV., who detested changing his Ministers, 
and was, besides, genuinely attached to Choiseul, who, 
like Maurepas in days gone by, had the gift of render- 
ing business "amusing," made every effort to bring 
about a rapprochement between the duke and the 
favourite, even going the length of writing the Minis- 
ter a curious letter entreating him to abandon his atti- 
tude of hostility to Madame du Barry. 

Louis XV. to the Due de Choiseul 

"... You manage my affairs very well, and I am 
satisfied with you, but be on your guard against those 
about you and the givers of advice (donneurs d'avis) ; 
that is what I have always hated and what I detest 
more than ever. You know Madame du Barry . . . 
she is pretty, I am content with her, and I recommend 
her every day to beware of those about her and the 
givers of advice, for you can well believe that she does 
not want for them; she has no bitter feeling against 
you, she appreciates your talents, and wishes you nO' 
evil. The exasperation against her has been fright- 
ful, without justification for the most part; they would 
be at her feet if . . . that is the way of the world. 
She is very pretty, she pleases me, that ought to suf- 
fice. Do you want me to take a girl of rank? If the 
archduchess were such as I should desire her to be, 
I would take her to wife with great pleasure,' for 

'Ihid. 

'^At the beginning of June 1770, Louis wrote to the Comte de 
Broglie, the conductor of his secret correspondence with foreign 
Courts, instructing him to obtain private information about the 



loS MADAME DU BARRY 

there must be an end o£ this, otherwise the beau sexe 
will always trouble me, for very surely, you will not see 
on my part a dame de Maintenon. And that, I think, 
is enough for the present. I have nO' need to recom- 
mend secrecy to you about this: my writing is no 
better than yours/'* 

"Does not this billet, which I have seen," observes 
Choiseul's friend. Baron de Gleichen, "express the 
desire for an arrangement, a prayer to lend himself to 
it, and the avowal, strange enough from a King, that 
the simple suffrage of his Ministers would do more 
than all that lay in his royal power? It is most 
astonishing that the sensitive heart of M. de Choiseul 
should have resisted sO' much kindness, the desire to 
play a trick on his enemies, and the certainty of reign- 
ing more comfortably by the aid of a woman who 
would have been entirely at his orders."" 

The intervention of the King was of no avail; 
Choiseul, spurred on by Madame de Gramont and her 
coterie, remained inflexible, and Madame du Barry, 
having exhausted every means of conciliation, re- 
signed herself to the struggle. 

While awaiting a favourable opportunity of ridding 
herself of her adversary, the weapons to which the 
lady had recourse were those which Madame de Pom- 
padour had employed with success on more than one 
occasion, notably against Maurepas ; that is to say, she 
tormented her royal adorer with unceasing complaints 
about his Minister, until the unfortunate monarch be- 
gan to detest the very name of Choiseul. Did she 
happen tO' be in an ill-humour : how could one be other- 
Archduchess Elizabeth, "her person, from h'ead to foot, her 
disposition," and so forth. 

^Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv, p. 43. The letter was one of 
those which, as already mentioned, were contributed to the 
journal by_ Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, who possessed the originals. 

^Souvenirs du Baron de Gleichen, p. 38. 



MADAME DU BARRY 109 

wise when M. de Choiseul refused to grant the very 
smallest favour that she asked of him? Were she 
pale and tearful: what could his Majesty expect when 
M. de Choiseul's friends were permitted to say such 
cruel things about her?^° Nor did she any longer at- 
tempt to disguise her resentment against the Minister, 
and the harmony of the royal card and supper-parties 
was disturbed, whenever the duke happened to be 
present, by the contempt and dislike which the favourite 
never failed to exhibit towards him. ^'The grandpapa 
(Choiseul)," writes Madame du Deifand to Horace 
Walpole, "appears in very good spirits; nevertheless, 
he is not free from uneasiness. The lady does not 
conceal her hatred of him any longer. He receives 
every day little annoyances, such as not being nomi- 
nated or invited to the soupers des cabinets, and, in her 
apartments, grimaces when he happens to be her part- 
ner at whist; mockeries, the shrugging of shoulders — 
in a word, all the little spiteful tricks of the school- 
girl. . . . Up to the present nothing has happened 
to injure his credit so far as regards his Ministry."" 

Contrary to the confident anticipation of Horace 
Walpole, the visit of the Court to Fontainebleau passed 
off without any scandal, at least so far as the Choi- 
seuls were concerned, though some unpleasantness 
arose in another quarter. 

The Due de Lauraguais, a nobleman with a predilec- 
tion for indifferent verses and practical jokes, brought 
a courtesan of the baser sort from Paris, Installed her 
in a suite of apartments in the town, and introduced her 
to all his friends as "Madame la Comtesse de Ton- 
neau" — fonneau being synonymous with baril (cask), 
the pronunciation of which is the same as "Barry."'^ 

"L^ Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 

"Letter of November 22, 1769. 

*^An engraving of the time represents Madame du Barry 



no MADAME DU BARRY 

Had this pleasantry, clumsy though it was, been per- 
petrated at the expense of Madame de Pompadour, 
the Due de Lauraguais would probably have had cause 
tO' rue it for the rest of his life. But that haughty 
dame's successor in the royal affections seems to have 
been rather amused than otherwise, and the only pun- 
ishment which the duke received was an intimation 
that a few months' residence abroad might benefit his 
health;" while the King gave orders to the police to 
drive all the femmes galantes they could find out of the 
town, a step which, Pidansat de Mairobert tells us, oc- 
casioned great annoyance and inconvenience to many 
gentlemen of the Court. 

As compensation for the impertinence of the Due 
de Lauraguais, Madame du Barry, while at Fontaine- 
bleau, was the recipient of a most charming compli- 
ment. 

It happened that Louis XV. was in the habit of pay- 
ing a visit every autumn to a beautiful pavilion which 
the wealthy farmer-general Bouret had erected, at 
enormous cost, at Croix-Fontaine, in the forest of 
Senart. Bouret would appear to have built this 
pavilion, over which he is said to have nearly ruined 
himself, as a speculation, with the idea of selling it to 
Madame de Pompadour, who had a perfect mania for 
acquiring costly country-seats; but the death of that 
lady occurred before his project was realised. His 

seated in a cask, as was the custom of the ravaudeuses, mending 
stockings and shoes. M. Vatel is of opinion that this caricature 
inspired the jest, or possibly the jest the caricature. 

^^ About the same time, Lauraguais's former ^ mistress, the 
beautiful and witty actress, Sophie Arnould, with whom the 
duke was still on friendly terms, displayed such " unexampled 
audacity " and " essential want of respect " towards Madame du 
Barry — in what way we are not told — that the King ordered her 
to be incarcerated in the " Hospital " for six months. The fa- 
vourite, however, interceded for the popular prima donna and 
obtained her pardon. — Mr. R. B. Douglas' " Sophie Arnould," 

p. 102. 



MADAME DU BARRY iii 

hopes of finding a purchaser, however, had revived 
with the advent of Madame du Barry, and he, accord- 
ingly, resolved to leave no' stone unturned to Ingratiate 
himself with the new divinity. 

The royal visit this year was paid on September 28, 
Madame du Barry accompanying the monarch dressed 
in a hahit de chasse similar to the one she had worn in 
Drouais's portrait. After the day's hunting, at which 
the killing of two stags had put the King into an ex- 
cellent humour, Bouret entertained his distinguished 
guests to a sumptuous repast, which concluded, he 
begged them to step into an adjoining room, where, 
he said, he had prepared a surprise for them. It was 
a statue of Venus, modelled after that of Guillaume 
Coustou aiSj which had been sent to Potsdam the 
previous June, together with a Mars, commissioned 
by Frederick the Great at the same time. But the 
head of the goddess had been changed — to an admi- 
rable likeness of Madame du Barry. 

The favourite was, of course, enraptured, while 
Louis XV. was highly flattered at such a delicate 
tribute to his taste." Nevertheless, Bouret did not 
succeed in inducing Madame du Barry to become the 
purchaser of his pavilion, and, some years later, hav- 
ing squandered the remainder of his fortune, he was 
found dead, under circumstances which pointed to 
suicide. 

" Bouret was certainly a born courtier. On another of his 
visits, Louis XV. perceived, on a table in the salon, a magnifi- 
cently bound folio entitled, Le Vrai Bonheur. He opened it, 
and found on each page the words, " Le Roi est venu chez 
Bouret," with the date, by anticipation, up to the year 1800. 



CHAPTER IX 

SHORTLY after the return of the Court from 
Fontainebleau, Madame du Barry was afforded 
another opportunity of giving proof of that 
kindness of heart and sympathy for misfortune which 
goes so far to efface the memory of her faults. 

A young man of Aumale, named Charpentier, hav- 
ing quarrelled with his relatives, left his native town 
and enlisted in the Regiment du Mestre de Camp- 
General, a cavalry corps stationed at Provins. Here 
his conduct was very satisfactory, until one fine day 
he was, according to his own account, seized with 
homesickness and deserted, taking with him his horse 
and uniform, with the intention apparently of return- 
ing them when he had gone two or three posts. This, 
however, he had no opportunity of doing, as his ab- 
sence was discovered almost immediately, and he was 
promptly pursued and brought back. A court-martial 
followed, and the prisoner's offence being greatly ag- 
gravated by the fact of his having carried off his horse 
and uniform, the officers who tried him had no option 
but to pass sentence of death. 

Fortunately for Charpentier, the commander of his 
regiment, the Chevalier d'Abense, took compassion 
upon the unhappy young man, and not only postponed 
the execution of the sentence to the farthest possible 
date, but wrote to his friend, the Comte de Belleval, 
who held a commission in the Chevau-legers of the 
King's Household, explaining the circumstances of 

lis 



MADAME DU BARRY 113 

the case, and begging him to use what influence he 
possessed to obtain a pardon from the King. 

On receiving the chevalier's letter, Belleval laid the 
matter before his commanding officer, the Due d' Aiguil- 
lon,^ who told him that the surest way of obtaining 
the favour he sought would be to endeavour to 
interest Madame du Barry in his protege's case, and 
promised to take him to the countess's apartments 
later in the day. We will follow the example of M. 
Vatel and allow Belleval to relate the sequel in his 
own words, thereby presenting the reader with prob- 
ably the best pen-portrait of Madame du Barry which 
we have: 

"At the hour appointed, I presented myself at M. 
d'Aiguillon's hotel, in full uniform, and he, faithful to 
his promise, was waiting for me, and went straight 
to the favourite's apartments, like one to whom doors 
are always open. 

"I had already often seen the countess, but from a 
distance ; enough to allow me to judge of her renowned 
beauty in the ensemble, but not enough to study its de- 
tails. She was carelessly sitting, or rather I should say 
reclining, on a large fauteuil, and wore a dress of 
white material with garlands of roses, which I see 
even now as I write, fifteen years later. 

"Madame du Barry was one of the prettiest women 

at the Court, where there were so many, and assuredly 

the most bewitching, on account of the perfections of 

her whole person. Her hair, which she often wore 

without powder, was fair and a most beautiful colour, 

and she had such a profusion that she was at a loss 

to know what to do with it. Her blue eyes, widely 

open, had a kind and frank expression, and she fixed 

*Armand Vignerod Duplessis Richelieu^ (1720-1788), son of 
Armand Louis de Vignerod, Marquis de Richelieu, Due d'Aiguil- 
lon, and Anne Charlotte de Crussol-Florensac. Until his father's 
death, in 1750, he bore the title of Due d'Agenois. 



114 MADAME DU BARRY 

them upon those to whom she spoke, and seemed to 
follow in their faces the effect of her words. She had 
a tiny nose, a very small mouth, and a skin of daz- 
zling whiteness. In short, she quickly fascinated 
every one, and I well-nigh forgot my petition in the 
delight I experienced in gazing at her. I was then 
about twenty-five years of age. She readily perceived 
my embarrassment, as did the Due d'Aiguillon, who 
very adroitly turned it off with one of those compli- 
ments which he knew so well how to make. I then 
presented my petition, adding some explanation and 
laying stress on the necessity there was for haste, and 
on the hope that we all placed in her for saving the 
life of this unhappy Charpentier. 

" 'I give you my promise to speak to the King, 
Monsieur,' she answered, *and I trust that his Majesty 
will not refuse me this favour. Monsieur le Due 
knows well that his friends are mine, and I thank him 
for not forgetting it,' she added, turning towards him 
with a charming smile. She then questioned me about 
my family, and as to how long I had served, and dis- 
missed us, telling me that I should soon have news 
from her. She gave her hand to the Due d'Aiguillon, 
who kissed it, observing: 'This is for the Captain- 
Lieutenant; is there nothing for the company?' which 
made her laugh ; and she bestowed upon me the same 
favour, of which I hastened to take advantage. 

"The following day, while I was on guard, a lackey, 
In the well-known livery of the countess, who had been 
to our hotel to inquire for me, approached and in- 
formed me that his mistress expected me at six o'clock. 
At the hour appointed, I presented myself at the door 
of her apartment and was admitted. There were sev- 
eral persons there, and the King was standing with 
his back against the chimney-piece. On perceiving 
me, Madame du Barry said to his Majesty: 'Sire, 



MADAME DU BARRY 115 

here is my chevau-leger, who comes to render his 
thanks to your Majesty.' 

" 'Thank, in the first place, Madame la Comtesse,' 
said Louis XV. to me, 'and tell your protege that, if 
I pardon him, he must, by his attention to my service, 
cause the fault of which he has been guilty to be 
forgotten.' 

''I do not very well know what answer I made the 
King; but the Due d'Aiguillon, whO' was present, as- 
sured me that I had said all that was necessary, and 
that the King had been satisfied with me and pleased 
that I had had the tact tO' choose Madame du Barry 
to ask for Charpentier's pardon. The same evening, 
the news was despatched to Provins, where the poor 
man was expecting nothing but death. He afterwards 
made a good soldier, and became an example to his 
regiment. 

''The story which I told my comrades of the good- 
ness of the countess was received with great applause, 
and the Vicomte du Barry, our cornet, had nothing 
but praises and compliments to report to her. We 
always believed that he did so, for on every occasion 
she showed a marked preference for the chevau-le gers 
above all the other troops of the King's Household. 
For my part, I was always afterwards treated with 
kindness, and I often met her at the hotel of the 
Duchesse d'Aiguillon, to whom she was much attached 
on account of her husband. I never again visited 
her apartments, save on two occasions, to seek M. 
d'Aiguillon on business connected with our company, 
when I had not found him at his hotel and the matter 
was urgent. But the place of a simple chevau-leger 
was not in the midst of all the courtiers who thronged 
her apartment, to pay their court to her or to meet his 
Majesty there. She understood that, and had the 
delicacy— though she treated me very kindly when I 



ii6 MADAME DU BARRY 

met her — never to ask why I did not visit her, as 
many women would have done. It was a different 
matter at the Due d'Aiguillon's, who was our chief, 
and where the 'red-ooats' often found themselves, or 
at the Marechale de Mirepoix's, where I also went 
frequently. 'Ah! there is my chevau^le ger ,' was the 
phrase which the countess never failed to employ when 
she caught sight of me, and she would inquire if there 
was anything she could do for me. As I invariably 
replied that there was not, she said, 'He always re- 
plies "No," when there are so many who would an- 
swer "Yes." My dear duke, are they all like that in 
your company?' 'Assuredly not,' answered the Due 
d'Aiguillon, and the laughter and gaiety which fol- 
lowed seemed as if it would never come to an end.'"' 

The Due d'Aiguillon, who figures in the above inci- 
dent, was Choiseul's most bitter enemy. The an- 
tagonism between them was something more than the 
conflict of personalities; it was one of principles and 
ideas. "M. de Choiseul belonged to the Jansenists, to 
the Parliamentarians, to the party of reform^ in 
Church and State, to the first awakening of Liberty, to 
the conspiracy of the future. M. d'Aiguillon belonged 
to the traditions of his family, to the school of his 
great-uncle. Cardinal de Richelieu, to the wisdom of 
the past ; tO' the theory of the right of absolute power, 
to the party of social discipline, tO' the doctrine which 
makes of monarchical government a good pleasure 
tempered by a theocracy. In these two men every- 
thing Is antagonistic, the internal administration of 
the country as well as the plan of her alliances on the 
map of Europe. They are the two champions and the 
two extremities of their age."* 

^ Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 128, ef seq. 
•E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 48. 



MADAME DU BARRY 117 

After having been in disgrace for a number of years, 
in consequence of the attachment which had once ex- 
isted between himself and the King's mistress, Ma- 
dame de Chateauroux, d'Aiguillon was eventually 
restored to favour and made Governor of Brittany, in 
which capacity he gained the victory of Saint-Cast 
over an English force which had landed there with 
the intention of ravaging the coast. His internal ad- 
ministration of that somewhat unruly province was 
less happy, and though M. Vatel, whose predilection 
for Madame du Barry appears to extend to her 
friends, has attempted his defence, there can be little 
doubt that his conduct, which aroused the bitterest 
hostility among all classes, was tyrannical and high- 
handed tO' the last degree, if not worse. 

The Parliament of Brittany was almost as inde- 
pendent as that of Paris, and, in 1764, that court 
forbade the collection of a tax which the Governor had 
levied without obtaining its consent. The recalcitrant 
magistrates were summoned to Versailles, in the hope 
that the frown of Majesty might overcome their 
resistance, but they declined to yield, whereupon 
d'Aiguillon arrested several, including the procureur- 
general, La Chalotais,* on a charge of sending threat- 

* D'Aiguillon was particularly bitter against La Chalotais, who 
had accused him of personal cowardice at the battle of Saint- 
Cast It appears that, in the course of the conflict, the duke 
mounted to the top of a windmill, in order to direct the opera- 
tions of his troops. La Chalotais remarked that in the battle 
"the troops were covered with glory, and their general with 
meal " ; in other words, that the duke had gone into the mill to 
seek shelter. The charge, which was not made until eight years 
after the event, was, of course, groundless, as all contemporary 
accounts of the battle agree in eulogising the conduct of 
d'Aiguillon, and, whatever his faults may have been, he was 
c'ertainly not lacking in courage, and, when a mere lad, had 
been twice severely wounded and mentioned in despatches for 
conspicuous bravery. However, the hatred with which the ar- 
bitrary governor was regarded was such that the slander found 
ready credence, and has been repeated by several historians. 



ii8 MADAME DU BARRY 

ening anonymous letters tO' the King, exiled others, 
and organised a new Parliament. The Bretons, how- 
ever, resisted the new tribunal with all their native 
stubbornness, and, after a struggle of four years, the 
Government gave way, the old judges were restored 
to their places, and d'Aiguillon recalled. 

The duke returned to Versailles, eager for revenge 
upon Choiseul, tO' whose machinations he attributed 
the check which his projects had sustained, and placed 
himself at the head of the devout party, the sworn 
enemies of the Minister. The position of this party 
and of its leader had, however, been much weakened 
of late years by the expulsion of the Jesuits and the 
successive deaths of the Dauphin — the intimate friend 
and protector of the duke — the Dauphiness and the 
Queen; and d'Aiguillon's prospects of triumphing 
over his enemy seemed small indeed. 

Under these circumstances, it was absolutely neces- 
sary for d'Aiguillon to seek new allies, and, accord- 
ingly, he turned towards Madame du Barry, who, he 
judged, would be ready enough to respond to the 
advances of one who was not only an important per- 
sonage himself, but able to secure for her the counte- 
nance and support of some of the greatest names in 
France. A consummate courtier, the former lover of 
Madame de Chateauroux had no difficulty in gaining 
a complete ascendency over the easy-natured favourite, 
who soon conceived for him, a sincere friendship, 
which, if any reliance is to be placed in contemporary 
gossip, was not long in developing into a warmer 
feeling. 

As an earnest of favours to come, on the death of 
the Due de Chaulnes, in the autumn of 1769, Madame 
du Barry succeeded in procuring for d'Aiguillon the 
post of Captain-Lieutenant of the Chevau-Ugers of 
the King's Household. This was not only a lucrative. 



MADAME DU BARRY 119 

but a very important, position, as it afforded its pos- 
sessor frequent opportunities for private interviews 
with the King;' and Choiseul, anxious that it should 
be filled by one of his own party, had endeavoured 
to obtain it for his nephew, the Vicomte de Choiseul. 
The news that the relative of the Minister had been 
passed over in favour of the nominee of the mistress 
created general surprise, and plainly indicated that the 
influence of the once all-powerful Choiseul was no 
longer to be undisputed. 

The rapprochement between d'Aiguillon and Ma- 
dame du Barry assuring as it did to the former an 
advocate with the King, and to the latter the support 
of the devout party, greatly strengthened the hands 
of both in the struggle against their common enemiy. 
Nevertheless, it may be doubted whether they would 
have ventured so quickly to assume the aggressive had 
not circumstances secured them the adhesion of two 
allies as ambitious and unscrupulous as d'Aiguillon 
himself and far more able, the Chancellor Maupeou 
and the Abbe Terray. 

Rene Nicolas de Maupeou came of an ancient 
Parliamentary family, who more than a century be- 
fore had counted fifty kinsfolk by blood and marriage 
in the Parliament of Paris alone. His father, Rene 
Charles de Maupeou, had successively filled the posts 
of First President, garde-des-sceaux and vice-chancel- 
lor, and in September 1768, on the resignation of 
Lamo'ignon, had been appointed Chancellor, a position 
which he resigned twenty-four hours later in favour 
of his son. 

The elder Maupeou, who is described as "of noble 
and majestic figure, dignified countenance, and ami- 

°The King himself was Captain of the Chevau-legers, and 
both he and Louis XIV. always wore the uniform of the corps 
when with the army in the field. 



I20 MADAME DU BARRY 

able disposition/' seems to have been both popular 
and respected; the younger, in nearly every respect 
the exact antithesis of his father, was probably the 
best hated man of his time; indeed, it would be diffi- 
cult to name any Minister who' has been to the same 
degree the object of public execration. If we are to 
credit only half of what we read about him, it would 
appear that such a monster of malevolence, ingrati- 
tude, avarice, treachery, hypocrisy, and general de- 
pravity had never before been seen, while "he bore on 
his countenance all the signs of the baseness of his 
soul, and his person inspired an instinctive repulsion.'" 

However that may be, Maupeou was a man O'f con- 
siderable ability and extraordinary tenacity of pur- 
pose, an indefatigable worker — he rose as early as 
four o'clock in the morning — a shrewd judge of his 
fellows, and gifted with a perfect genius for subter- 
ranean intrigue. 

Maupeou had owed his appointment to Choiseul,' 
and had at first affected for his patron an almost re- 
pulsive idolatry. He was wont to declare that nothing 
could induce him to change his residence, because 
from his windows he could at least perceive the 
chimneys of the Hotel de Choiseul; boasted that ''he 

"Here is his portrait drawn by his biographer, M. Flammer- 
mont : 

" He was * a little black man.' He had a low forehead, bushy 
and very black eyebrows, keen, cold, piercing eyes, a prominent 
nose, a large and disagreeable mouth, a retreating chin, a bilious 
complexion, generally white, often yellow, and sometimes green; 
at the Court they called him Ua bigarrade (sour orange).' In a 
word, he was frankly hideous." — Le Chancelier Maupeou et les 
Parlements, p. 7. 

■^ Choiseul was not blind to the dangerous and intriguing char- 
acter of Maupeou, but he deemed himself strong enough to be 
able to ignore it. When some of his friends protested against the 
appointment, he replied : " I am aware that Maupeou is a scoun- 
drel, but he is the most capable person for the Chancellorship. 
If he misbehaves himself, I shall get rid of him." 



MADAME DU BARRY 121 

bore on his heart the livery of the Minister/* and 
never spoke of him but as "our good duke." But 
even while thus protesting his unswerving devotion to 
his interests, Maupeou was diligently seeking the 
means to effect his ruin. 

The Chancellor's desire to secure the fall of Choiseul 
was not, as was the case with d'Aiguillon, prompted 
by any personal feeling, but simply by expediency ; the 
Minister stood between Maupeou and the realisation 
of a project whereby he hoped to assure for ever his 
political fortunes. 

For more than forty years che relations between the 
Crown and the Parliaments had been exceedingly 
strained. The magistrates, who derived their author- 
ity from the King, were no longer satisfied with ex- 
ercising their judicial functions; they now sought to 
band themselves together and form a new organisa- 
tion in the body politic, a tribunal which should be the 
organ of the nation, the guardian of its liberties, in- 
terests, and rights, the judge between the King and 
people, the interpreter of the sovereign's will. 

Such pretensions, as may be imagined, were strongly 
resented by Louis XV., who entertained as exalted a 
conception of the royal prerogative as his predecessor, 
and who repeatedly asserted in his solemn declarations, 
in his beds of justice, that the will of the sovereign 
was paramount and must be obeyed. 

The importance of the question at issue can hardly 
be overestimated. The Parliaments did not lay claim 
to the right of remonstrance — ^that was not contested ; 
they claimed to enjoy the right of refusing to register 
the royal edicts; in other words, to impose an ahso^ 
lute veto on the measures of the King. "If it was 
decided in favour of the King," wrote Madame 
d'Epinay, voicing, in all probability, the opinion of her 
friend Rousseau, the consequence would be to render 



122 MADAME DU BARRY 

him absolutely despotic. If it was decided in favour 
of the Parliament, the King would possess hardly 
more authority than the King of England."^ 

Although the difference between the parties was of 
such long standing, a settlement seemed as far off as 
ever ; and, in the meanwhile, undignified and vexatious 
disputes were of frequent occurrence, which on several 
occasions had been carried tO' such lengths as to throw 
the whole judicial machinery of the realm into hope- 
less disorder for months together. The King would 
submit an edict tO' the Parliament; the Parliament 
would remonstrate; the King would hold a Bed of 
Justice and insist on the registration of the edict ; the 
Parliament would refuse and suspend its functions; 
the King would order the recalcitrant judges to re- 
sume their duties and exile those who disobeyed, with 
the result that all litigation would come to a standstill 
and great hardships be inflicted on unfortunate suit- 
ors, who were compelled to wait for redress until a 
truce had been concluded. 

Out of this impasse the keen eye of Maupeou per- 
ceived that there were but two ways of escape : the 
re-establishment of the States-General, or the over- 
throw of the existing Parliainentary institutions and 
the creation of new courts, the members of which 
should be compelled to confine themselves to their 
judicial functions. For the first, the time was not 
yet ripe, in addition to which it would not have in any 
any way furthered his designs, which were to 
strengthen the authority of the Crown, ''en la retirant 
de la poussiere dii greffe, ou elle etait menace e de 
s'ensevelir/' and by so doing render himself indis- 
pensable to the King. But the second might be ac- 
complished if Louis XV. could be inspired with the 
resolution necessary for a vigorous coitp d'etat. 

* Cited by M. Vatel in Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii< 15. 



MADAME DU BARRY 123 

To carry out any measure of this kind, however, so 
long as Choiseul retained his credit with the King, was 
out of the question, for Choiseul had continued the 
policy of his predecessor, Cardinal de Bernis, or 
rather that of their common protectress, Madame de 
Pompadour, and supported the Parliaments, who 
were devoted to him. The first step, therefore, 
to the overthrow of the Parliaments must be the 
overthrow of Choiseul; and it was with this ob- 
ject in view that the Chancellor determined to 
cast in his lot with d'Aiguillon and Madame du 
Barry/ 

The Abbe Terray, who followed the Chancellor into 
the camp of the favourite, was, like Maupeou, a mem- 
ber of the Parliament; like him, ambitious and 
absolutely devoid of principle; and, by a singular 
coincidence, like him again, a man of singularly un- 
prepossessing appearance. "He was a very extraor- 
dinary being, this Abbe Terray, and, happily, of a 
very rare species. His exterior was rugged, sinister, 
even terrifying: a tall, bent figure, haggard eyes, a 
furtive glance, which conveyed the impression of 
falseness and perfidy, uncouth manners, a harsh voice, 
a dry conversation, no openness of soul, judging every 
human being unfavourably because he judged them 
by himself, a laugh rare and caustic.""" Although he 
was harsh to- the last degree to those unable to resist 
or injure him, he showed himself immoderately com- 
plaisant and disgracefully servile towards those whom 
he believed to have credit. Never did there exist a 
more icy heart or one more inaccessible to affections, 

® M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 
p. 153. Biographie generale, article Maupeou, by M. Gregoire. 

" On one occasion, when dining at the house of a friend, who 
knew his character intimately, Terray began to laugh, upon 
which his host remarked to his neighbour at the table, " See ! 
the abbe is laughing. Some one must have met with misfortune." 



124 MADAME DU BARRY 



save that for sensual pleasures, or for money, as a 
means of procuring those pleasures."" 

Such is the description given of him by one of his 
contemporaries. 

Ter ray's intellectual qualities, however, as his critic 
readily admits, were vastly superior to his moral, and, 
employed for worthier ends, might have atoned for 
his vices. Heir tO' a wealthy uncle enriched by specu- 
lations in Mississippi stock, he had largely increased 
his patrimony through his connection with the scan- 
dalous Malisset Association, formed to raise the price 
of grain, and in which Louis XV. himself was pop- 
ularly believed to be interested, and was now a rich 
man. In the Parliament of Paris, which he had 
entered when very young, he had early gained distinc- 
tion and had taken a leading part in the campaign 
against the Jesuits, receiving as the reward of his 
services the rich abbey of Molesmes. At this period 
he had been a follower of Choiseul, but chagrin at the 
duke's refusal to recognise his claims to advancement 
and, more particularly, tO' the post of Comptroller- 
General, when vacated by Laverdi in the autumn of 
1768, had decided him to join his fortunes to those 
of Maupeou and work with him^ for the downfall of 
the haughty Minister. 

The cabal gained its first success in the closing days 
of 1769. 

Maynon d'Invau, who had replaced Laverdi as 
Comptroller-General in the autumn of the previous 
year, had found his new post very far from a bed of 
roses, for the difficulties which his predecessor had 
bequeathed him^^ were aggravated by the growing an- 

" Montyon's Particularites ef Observations sur les Controleurs- 
Generaux des Finances de 1660 a 1791. 

^^ Laverdi had left the debt 115 millions since the Peace; th'e 
sinking-fund was only a bait, for much more was borrowed than 
was extinguished. In January 1769, the revenue had been fore- 



MADAME DU BARRY 125 

tagonism between Choiseul and Maupeou, and between 
the King and the magistracy. His expedients for 
remedying the lamentable condition of the finances 
having been rejected by the Parliament of Paris, and 
a bed of justice having failed to bring the recalcitrant 
judges to reason, he endeavoured to steer a middle 
course between the wishes of the Court and the Parlia- 
ment ; and in a council held at Versailles, on December 
21, laid upon the table a modified form of his original 
proposals, containing a scheme for the reduction of 
expenses and the abolition of a number of financial 
ofifices, as a concession to the gentlemen of the robe. 

Choiseul supported his protege: Maupeou attacked 
him vigorously; the King sided with the Chancellor, 
broke up the council in a passion, and, retiring to his 
cabinet, slammed the door violently behind him. Then 
Maupeou was sent for, and remained in conference 
with the King for half an hour, as the result of which 
it was decided, in anticipation of Maynon d'lnvau's 
resignation, which was tendered almost immediately, 
to offer the post of Comptroller-General to Terray, 
whom the Chancellor declared to be the only man 
capable of initiating and carrying through the meas- 
ures that were needed. 

The fall of Maynon dTnvau and the appointment 
of Terray was a severe blow to the prestige of 
Choiseul, and though the Minister himself affected 
to make light of the matter, its significance was not 
lost upon his friends. **I supped on Tuesday with 
the grand-papa (Choiseul)," writes Madame du Def- 
f and to Walpole ; *'he is still in the best of spirits ; he 
will be like Charles VII., of whom it was said that no 
one could lose a kingdom more gaily.' 



>>13 



stalled to the amount of thirty-two and a half million livres. — 
Martin's Histoire de France jusqu'en 1789, xvi. 246. 
" Letter of December 26, I76g. 



CHAPTER X 

THE year 1770 opened for Madame du Barry 
with a fresh proof of the royal favour. On 
the counterscarp of the fortifications of Nantes 
stood a number of houses, booths, and shops, the 
property of the Crown. The rent derived from these 
structures, estimated by contemporary writers at 
40,000 Hvres per annum, had in 1769 been bestowed 
by Louis XV. on the Duchesse de Lauraguais, who, 
however, only lived to enjoy it a few months, and, on 
January i, the King, by way of a New Year's gift, 
handed his mistress a brevet conferring a life interest 
in Les Loges de Nantes upon her. 

This present was extremely acceptable to Madame 
du Barry, who had not yet received any considerable 
pecuniary favours, and had, therefore, been able to 
indulge in but few of the hundred extravagances for 
which her soul yearned. Deeming it inadvisable, until 
her position was assured, to make application to the 
King, she had been compelled to have recourse to the 
''Roue," who, in confident expectation of a bountiful 
return, had cast his bread upon the waters freely 
enough. However, in the years to come, the countess 
was destined to receive ample compensation for these 
few months of self-denial, and her astute brother-in- 
law to reap a rich reward for having, as he affirmed, 
well-nigh beggared himself in assisting the lady to 
maintain her new dignity .'' 

*In his letter to Malesherbes, already cited, the "Roue" says: 
"In order to sustain her new position during the first fifteen 
months, during which she received no pecuniary favour, I en- 
gaged the remainder of my fortune." 

126 



MADAME DU BARRY 127 

Early in the following spring, the favourite removed 
from the apartments on the rez-de-chaussee of the 
Cour Royaie, which she had occupied since her in- 
stallation at Versailles, to those of the late Dauphiness, 
Marie Josephe of Saxony. These apartments, which 
had never before been occupied by a mistress, were 
situated on the second floor of the chateau, above the 
Cabinets of Louis XV., and formed part of what were 
known as the Petits Cabinets." In the interval between 
the death of the Dauphiness and the installation of 
Madame du Barry they had undergone various modi- 
fications, and now comprised an ante-chamber, a din- 
ing-room, a cabinet de compagnie, a private cabinet, a 
library, an arriere-hihliotheque, a wardrobe and a 
bath-room; while a private staircase communicating 
with the King's apartments on the floor below enabled 
the monarch to visit his mistress at any hour he pleased 
without being observed.^ 

Although preparations for Madame du Barry's 
occupation of these apartments seem to have been in 
progress throughout the previous winter, the lady was 
dissatisfied with their condition; and, accordingly, 
advantage was taken of the annual visit of the Court 
to Fontainebleau in the following autumn to have 

''The "Petits Cabinets," sometimes called the "Petits Ap- 
partements," were the portion of the King's apartments situated 
above his Cabinets, or state rooms, which were on the first floor 
of the chateau. Here Louis XV. had his library, kitchens, where 
he occasionally amused himself by experiments in cooking, of 
which he was almost as fond as his successor of carpentry, distil- 
leries, a bath-room and, on one of the upper terraces, his aviaries. 
Here also he gave supper-parties to his intimate friends and re- 
ceived visits from mattresses de passage. Without being en- 
tirely cut off from the rest of the chateau, the Petits Cabinets 
had only just enough communication as was required by the 
servants, and no one, not even members of the Royal Family, 
ever entered the sacred precincts, except by invitation of the 
King. 

^ See the plan in M. de Nolhac's Le Chateau de Versailles sous 
Louis XV. 



128 MADAME DU BARRY 

them redecorated and regilded, an army of work- 
men being employed in order to complete the work be- 
fore the favourite's return. TwO' years later, the 
countess came to the conclusion that the bath-room was 
not quite as commodious as it might be made, and in- 
sisted on new baths being constructed; a request, or 
command, which was duly complied with, although 
at this time the unfortunate Director of the Board 
of Works appears to have been in dire straits for 
lack of funds, and writes to Terray, the Comptroller- 
General : 

" Monsieur, — The Royal Family are impatiently 
demanding various arrangements which have been sub- 
mitted by me to his Majesty and commanded by him. 
Madame la Comtesse du Barry has demanded new 
baths in her apartment, which his Majesty has like- 
wise commanded, and the work will cost 15,000 livres. 
I have not a single sol wherewith to carry out his 
Majesty's wishes. I again implore you to place me in 
a position to do so." 

Madame du Barry's installation in these apartments 
marks a new step in her triumphant career. So strik- 
ing a mark of the royal favour as the conferment of a 
lodging in the Petits Cabinets, the very apartments, 
too, which had formerly been occupied by the second 
lady in the land, was not likely to be ignored, and 
many of those who had hitherto held aloof from the 
mistress now deemed it incumbent upon them tO' pay 
their court to her. " I remarked," writes the Due de 
Croy, " that little by little people went more and more 
to visit the countess. She was established in a lodging 
in the Cabinets, the same in which Madame la Dau- 
phine died. From all this she derived the advantage of 
being generally acknowledged as a lady of the Court; 



MADAME DU BARRY 129 

she went to all the fetes pell-mell with the others; peo- 
ple gradually became accustomed to it."^ 

In the face of these renewed proofs of the King's 
infatuation, before the association of d'Aiguillon, 
Maupeou and Terray, the defection of men whom he 
had always believed devoted to his interests, and of 
high-born dames, who, he perceived, were only await- 
ing a favourable opportunity to follow the example of 
Marechale de Mirepoix and the Comtesse de Valenti- 
nois, and openly take part with the favourite, Choiseul 
began to be seriously alarmed and to find, as he con- 
fided to Dumouriez, that " the jade was occasioning 
him considerable embarrassment. "° However, he con- 
soled himself with the reflection that with the arrival 
of the Dauphiness-elect, the Archduchess Marie Antoi- 
nette, everything would be changed. A young prin- 
cess, accustomed at her mother's Court to hear the 
name of the Due de Choiseul mentioned with esteem 
and affection as the firm, friend of Austria and the 
negotiator of her own marriage, would not hesitate 
to accord him all the support in her power. And this 
support would be no mean factor in the situation. 
Beautiful and fascinating as she was reported to be, 
she could hardly fail to obtain influence over a mon- 
arch so susceptible to feminine charms as Louis XV., 
who, for very shame's sake, must hesitate to flaunt 
before the eyes of a young girl brought up amid virtu- 
ous surroundings his low-born mistress. The result 
would be that decorum would once more reign at 
Court; Madame du Barry would be relegated to the 
background; the cabal which had formed around her 
would be powerless to harm him, and he would be 
able to crush his enemies at his leisure. 

* Memoires inedits du Due de Croy, Bibliotheque de I'Institut, 
cited by M. de Nolhac. 

° La Vie et les Memoires du General Dumouries (edit. Berville 
and Barriere), i. 143. 



130 MADAME DU BARRY 

Thus Choiseul reasoned, but, unhappily for himself, 
he underrated, as he had from the very first, the 
strength and permanency of Louis's senile passion, and 
failed to perceive that the friendship and support of a 
princess who, while able to annoy, might be powerless 
to injure, the lady whom the King delighted to honour, 
would be a broken reed indeed. 

Marie Antoinette arrived at Strasburg on May 7 ; on 
the 14th, she was met by Louis XV., the Dauphin, 
and Mesdames, at the Pont de Berne, in the Forest 
of Compiegne, and conducted to Versailles, where the 
marriage was immediately celebrated. 

On the evening before the ceremony, a supper, at 
which the whole of the Royal Family and a few of 
the most favoured courtiers were present, was given at 
the Chateau of La Muette, where the royal party had 
broken their journey, upon which occasion the King 
presented the young princess, amongst other jewels, 
with the famous pearl necklace threaded on a single 
string, which had been brought to France by Anne of 
Austria, and bequeathed by her to future queens and 
dauphinesses." 

Another incident connected with the banquet was of 
a less pleasing nature, for Louis XV. had the unpar- 
donably bad taste to invite Madame du Barry, although 
up to the present he had never yet ventured to introduce 
his mistress to the same table as the Royal Family. 

The Austrian Ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau, who 
had been commissioned by his " Sacred Majesty," as 
he styles Maria Theresa, to report to her the minutest 
details concerning her daughter, could scarcely believe 

^The smallest of the pearls composing this necklace was said 
to be as large as a filbert. Magnificent though they were, how- 
ever, they were surpassed, according to Mademoiselle de Mont- 
p'ensier, by the pearls of the Marechale de I'Hopital, which le 
Grand Monarque purchased and presented to Madame de Mon- 
tespan. 



MADAME DU BARRY 131 

the evidence of his eyes. " It appears inconceivable," 
he writes, " that the King should choose this moment 
to accord to the favourite an honour which has been 
refused her up to the present."^ 

" What is the Comtesse du Barry's function at 
Court?" inquired Marie Antoinette, observing with 
surprise the attentions which the infatuated monarch 
lavished upon the favourite. 

'* To amuse the King," was the diplomatic answer 
of the courtier addressed. 

" Then," rejoined the young girl, with all the can- 
dour of her fifteen years, " I intend to be her rival." 

" A rivalry indeed ensued," remarks M. de Nolhac, 
" very different from the one she imagined, between 
innocence and vice, a contest secret at first, but soon 
apparent, and affecting the highest political interests."^ 

Beautiful, joyous, and affectionate, eager to please, 
grateful for every attention, Marie Antoinette speedily 
won golden opinions from Louis XV., who, we feel 
bound to observe, appears to have treated her with a 
kindness which might well have merited more consid- 
eration for his domestic tranquillity than the princess 
afterwards exhibited. With Madame du Barry, too, 
contrary to the general impression which seems to 
prevail, nothing occurred during the first few weeks to 
presage the storm which was ere long to arise and defy 
all the efforts of Louis XV., Mercy, and Maria 
Theresa to calm. The Dauphiness, though speedily 
made aware of the true nature of the mysterious func- 
tion of " amusing " the King, remained for some time 
in ignorance of the favourite's humble origin and event- 
ful past; and, acting on the advice of the sage Mercy 
arid her reader, the Abbe de Vermond, made no dis- 
tinction between Madame du Barry and other ladies 

' Mercy io Kaunitz, May 17, 1770. 

^ Marie Antoinette et Madame du Barry, Revue des Deux 

Mondes, May, 1896. xr . « 

Memoirs— 5 ^^^* "^ 



132 MADAME DU BARRY 

of the Court; that is to say, she treated her with 
courtesy on the occasions on which they happened to 
meet at the card-table or elsewhere. The favourite, on 
her side, '' who knew how to put on decorum with le 
grand habit/' showed towards the Dauphiness an ex- 
treme deference bordering on servility, and was evi- 
dently prepared to go to any lengths to propitiate the 
new power. 

About the middle of June, Madame du Barry sum- 
moned up sufficient courage to make advances, and, 
accordingly, presented herself before the Dauphiness 
at her lever, upon which Mercy reports to Maria 
Theresa : 

" Madame du Barry believed it incumbent upon her 
to pay her court one morning to her Royal Highness ; 
that princess received her without affectation ; the latter 
conducted herself with dignity and in a manner that 
could give offence to no one."^ 

To be received " without affectation" was, probably, 
quite as much as the favourite felt that she had the 
right to expect, and in the freedom of her apartments 
she lisped to the delighted King, like his mistress 
grateful for small mercies, her opinion that ''^ cette 
petite rousse etait sarmantef' 

Matters continued thus till the early part of July, 
when an unfortunate incident came to mar the har- 
mony of Versailles, if harmony could ever be said to 
exist in a Court which was without its equal in Europe 
as a forcing-house for envy, hatred, malice, and all 
uncharitableness. 

It happened that the Dauphin had for governor a 
certain Due de la Vauguyon, of whom we have had 
occasion to speak in an earlier chapter, a despicable old 
intriguer, who passed for a devot, and was in the habit 
of listening at keyholes and suchlike places, in the hope 
^Letter of June 15, 1770. 



MADAME DU BARRY 133 

of gleaning information which might further his de- 
signs." Through hatred of Choiseul, he had espoused 
the cause of Madame du Barry, and, for a similar 
reason, had viewed with strong disapprobation the 
Austrian marriage, which had been the work of his 
enemy. Being powerless to prevent it, he now sought 
to render it as unhappy as possible, in order that he 
might retain his hitherto unbounded influence over the 
mind of his pupil and complete his task of embittering 
him against Choiseul/^ 

In pursuance of this amiable resolution, he, through 
his son, the Due de Saint-Megrin, persuaded Madame 
du Barry to obtain the King's consent to the Dauphin's 
inclusion in certain supper-parties which Louis was in 
the habit of giving to his intimate friends at Saint- 
Hubert, a hunting-lodge situated between the forests 
of Rambouillet and Saint-Leger, and at which, says 
Mercy, " decorum was not always scrupulously ob- 
served."" By this means the duke, apparently, hoped to 
bring about a rapprochement between the Dauphin and 
Madame du Barry — he had been at great pains to con- 
ceal the lady's past from his pupil — and, at the same 
time, cause dissension between the young prince and 
Marie Antoinette, who, he was aware, had conceived 
a strong aversion to the favourite, though she had 
hitherto contrived to keep her feelings under control. 

" " A singular incident happened the other day, I was alone 
with my husband when M. de la Vauguyon stealthily approached 
the door, in order to listen. A valet-de-chamhre, who is either 
a fool or a very honest man, opened it, and M. de la Vauguyon, 
not having time to withdraw, was found posted there like a 
sentinel." — Marie Antoinette to Maria Theresa, July 9, 1770. 

" Some writers allege that La Vauguyon werit so far as to en- 
deavour to persuade the young prince that Choiseul had caused 
his father and mother, the late Dauphin and Dauphiness, to be 
poisoned, but dull-witted as the future Louis XVL undoubtedly 
was, it is difficult to believe that any one could have supposed 
him capable of crediting so monstrous a charge. 

^^ Mercy to Maria Theresa, July 14, 1770. 



134 MADAME DU BARRY 

The Dauphin attended one of the suppers, where he 
was not a little astonished at the levity which prevailed, 
and particularly at the freedom with which Madame du 
Barry treated his august grandfather. However, as he 
was an exceedingly timid and reserved youth — though 
he had been married nearly two months, he had not yet 
ventured to claim his conjugal privileges — it is proba- 
ble that he would have kept his opinion of such pro- 
ceedings to himself, had not Mesdames, alarmed at 
the danger which threatened the innocence of their 
nephew, taken upon themselves to give him a little his- 
tory of the favourite, not forgetting a few of the most 
striking episodes in her life; and this information 
made such an impression upon the mind of the Dau- 
phin that from that moment " he bestowed upon the 
Comtesse du Barry frequent marks of his aversion."" 

Nor was this all ; for, in a conversation with Marie 
Antoinette on July 8, in the course of which he sol- 
emnly announced to the blushing princess his intention, 
during the approaching visit of the Court to Com- 
piegne, to live with her ''dans toute Vetendue re Vin- 
timite qui comporte leur union/'^* the name of Madame 
du Barry happened to be mentioned, upon which the 
Dauphin repeated to his wife all that his aunts had told 
him concerning that lady. 

The day after this conversation we find the Dau- 
phiness writing to Maria Theresa as follows : 

" The King has shown me a thousand kindnesses, 

^^ Mercy to Maria Theresa, July 14, 1770. 

" But he did not carry out his resolution. On January 3, 1774 
—three and a half years later— Maria Theresa wrote to Mercy: 
" The coldness of the Dauphin, a young husband of twenty years 
of age, towards a pretty wife, is more than I can conceive. In 
spite of all the assertions of the faculty, my suspicions increase 
as to the physical constitution of the prince, and I have little to 
count upon but the good offices of the Emperor, who, on his 
arrival at Versailles, will perhaps find means to compel this in- 
dolent husband to acquit himself better of his duty." 



MADAME DU BARRY 135 

and I love him tenderly ; but it is pitiable to see his in- 
fatuation for Madame du Barry, who is the most fool- 
ish and impertinent creature imaginable. She played 
every evening with us at Marly, and on two or three 
occasions found herself at my side; but she did not 
address me, neither did I attempt to enter into conver- 
sation with her; but, when obliged, I have spoken to 
her." 

And three days later: 

'' I have forgotten to tell you that I wrote yesterday 
to the King; I was very frightened, being aware that 
Madame du Barry reads everything. But you may be 
persuaded, my dear mother, that I shall commit no 
mistake either for or against her." 

But the influences at work around her were too 
strong tO' permit of the little Dauphiness carrying out 
this diplomatic resolution. Apart from the Dauphin, 
whoi v^as still only a boy, and too shy and reserved to 
invite her confidence, Marie Antoinette had no one to 
whom she could turn for guidance amid the shoals and 
quicksands of the Court. Her dame d'honneur, the 
Comtesse de Noailles, possessed the rare merit of not 
being an intriguer, but she carried flattery to lengths 
which irritated the Dauphiness, and, besides, was but 
little qualified to give advice, save on matters of Court 
ceremonial, her devotion to which procured her from 
her young mistress the name of ''Madame r Etiquette'' ; 
while none of the other ladies of her Household pos- 
sessed any particular attraction for the princess, which 
was scarcely surprising, as the majority were indebted 
for their positions to La Vauguyon or the favourite.^^ 

In her isolation, the young girl turned towards her 
aunts, the three Mesdames— the fourth, Madame 
Louise, had, a few months before, succeeded in wrest- 
ing from Louis XV. a reluctant permission to enter 
^° M. de Nolhac's Marie Antoinette, Dauphine, p. 142. 



136 MADAME DU BARRY 

the Carmelites of Saint-Denis — whose friendship 
Maria Theresa, aware of the reputation of these prin- 
cesses for piety and virtue, but not, unfortunately, of 
their predilection for petty intrigue, had advised her to 
cultivate. 

Mesdames were enchanted to find their niece so 
ready to seek their society and accept their guidance. 
They received her with open arms, gave her the key 
to a private door leading to Madame Adelaide's apart- 
ments, in which the sisters were in the habit of holding 
their little Court, so that she might come thither un- 
attended and at any hour she pleased, racked their 
brains to devise new means of amusing her, and ca- 
ressed and flattered her to the top of her bent. From 
thence to obtain influence over her mind, tO' imbue her 
with their own prejudices, to dictate to her the attitude 
she should assume towards the different members of 
the Court, was but a step. " The insinuations of the 
old princesses, falling incessantly on the mind of the 
young girl,'' says M. de la Rocheterie, " ended by 
making an impression upon it, however strong the 
protest of her good sense, as the continual dropping of 
water ends by wearing away even the hardest rock. 
This deplorable ascendency extended itself over every- 
thing, mingled with everything, touched everything.'"^ 

Mesdames hated Madame du Barry and all her sup- 
porters, though a wholesome dread of their royal 
father's anger prevented them from showing their 
antipathy in too marked a manner. But the frank, 
impetuous little Dauphiness was quite incapable of 
dissimulating her dislike, and the princesses meanly ''in- 
cited her to a resentment which they dared not exhibit 
themselves." So long, however, as the Court was at 
Compiegne occasions of peril were rare ; Marie Antoi- 
nette did not see Madame du Barry, except at a dis- 
^^Histoire de Marie Antoinette, i. 91. 



MADAME DU BARRY 137 

tance, at Mass, the chase, or the grand couvert, and 
had, therefore, no opportunity of testifying the aver- 
sion and contempt which she now entertained for the 
favourite. On the other hand, the Due de la Vauguyon 
and his confederate, Madame de Marsan, the gouver- 
nante of the Dauphin's sisters, Clotilde and Ehsabeth, 
who came every day to pay their court to the Dauphin- 
ess, found themselves treated with a coldness which 
excited general remark and showed the Du Barry party 
that they had now to reckon with a new adversary. 

Towards the end of July, the Court paid a short visit 
to Choisy, and it was while there that a false move on 
the part of Madame du Barry, which directly touched 
the Dauphiness, greatly accentuated Marie Antoinette's 
dislike of the favourite and ruined any slight chance 
that might have remained to the latter of eventually 
overcoming the hostility of the princess. 

To amuse the Dauphiness, the King gave orders for 
some comedies to be performed in the theatre of the 
chateau. This theatre was a very small one, and could 
with difficulty accommodate the various members of 
the Royal Family and their respective suites, and one 
evening it happened that Madame du Barry, arriving 
late with her two inseparables, the Marechale de Mire- 
poix and the Comtesse de Valentinois, found all the 
front seats occupied by the dames du palais of the 
Dauphiness. They requested them to make way, but 
the dames declined, and a war of words ensued, where- 
in one of Marie Antoinette's ladies, the Comtesse de 
Gramont, who is described by Madame du Deffand as 
" foolish, impudent, and talkative," greatly distin- 
guished herself. Some of the shafts she discharged 
would appear to have been very keenly barbed and 
to have found their mark; any way, next morning 
Madame du Barry, instead of allowing the affair to 
rest, as policy should certainly have dictated, having 



.38 MADAME DU BARRY 

regard to the official position of the dehnquent, com- 
plained to the King, who promptly exiled the Comtesse 
de Gramont fifteen leagues from the Court. 

This incident created an immense sensation. The 
Comtesse de Gramont was the sister-in-law of the 
duchess of that name, and a leading light of the 
Choiseul party, which was highly incensed at the exile 
of one of its members, and besought the Dauphiness 
to intercede for her with the King. This Marie Antoi- 
nette, who was herself very indignant, promised to 
do; but Mercy intervened, and, on his advice, she con- 
fined herself to expressing her regret that punishment 
should have been inflicted on one of her ladies without 
any official notification having been made to her, as 
etiquette demanded. Louis XV., though perfectly well 
aware that it was the punishment, and not the breach 
of etiquette, that was being made the subject of pro- 
test, was much relieved at escaping so easily from an 
awkward position, laid the blame on the negligence of 
his Commander des Ordres, promised that it should 
not occur again, and made many affectionate speeches 
to the Dauphiness. 

Three months later, while the Court was at Fon- 
tainebleau, the exiled dame dii palais wrote to her 
mistress, informing her that she was ill and urgently 
in need of the best medical advice, and begging her to 
obtain the King's permission for her to come to Paris. 
There was in all probability nothing more serious the 
matter with the countess than the malady from which 
all ladies excluded for a season from the delights of 
Versailles and the capital suffered, to wit, ennui. But 
the kind heart of Marie Antoinette was touched, and 
after a dinner au grand convert, at which all the Royal 
Family were present, she took the opportunity of solic- 
iting the return of the exile '' in a manner full of grace 
and sweetness." 



MADAME DU BARRY 139 

The King demurred, and hinted that it would be 
as well if Madame du Barry's pardon were obtained. 
The Dauphiness exclaimed : " Think what a grief it 
would be to me, papa, if a lady attached to my service 
were to die in your disgrace!" But she did not act 
upon the hint, in consequence of which, according to 
Mercy, Madame du Barry " showed at first some in- 
clination to oppose the desire of Madame la Dau- 
phine." Finally, a courier having been despatched to 
obtain a certificate of ill-health from the complaisant 
medical adviser of the Comtesse de Gramont, that 
lady was permitted to reside in Paris, but no further 
concession was made, and the Court remained forbid- 
den ground. 

Whether the King's refusal to pardon the countess 
was due to the influence of Madame du Barry is very 
doubtful. Vindictiveness was so entirely alien to the 
favourite's character, and it was so obviously to her 
interests to endeavour to conciliate the Dauphiness, 
that we are inclined to think that she offered no oppo- 
sition to the lady's return to Court, and may even, con- 
trary to Mercy's assertion, have seconded the solicita- 
tions of the princess; but that Louis XV., having de- 
termined to make an example, was not to be turned 
from his purpose. However that may be, it is certain 
that Marie Antoinette, whose pride was deeply wound- 
ed by what she chose to regard as a personal affront, 
never forgave Madame du Barry her share in the 
affair, and henceforth treated her with the utmost dis- 
dain, and tacitly encouraged her entourage to do like- 
wise, to the intense chagrin of the favourite and the 
annoyance of the King. 

On the other hand, the Dauphiness lost no opportu- 
nity of bestowing marks of her favour upon Choiseul, 
his wife and sister. In so doing, of course, she was 
only acting in accordance with the instructions of 



I40 MADAME DU BARRY 

Maria Theresa, who had charged her daughter never 
to forget that Choiseul had been the negotiator of her 
marriage, and that she owed her proud position entirely 
to him. But, as matters stood, the result was most 
unfortunate for the duke; for Madame du Barry and 
her friends had little difficulty in persuading the King 
that the attitude adopted by Marie Antoinette towards 
the favourite was directly attributable to the influence 
of the Choiseuls; and as the Dauphiness's favour de- 
clined, that of the Minister declined also. 



CHAPTER XI 

BUT, in the meanwhile, events of far more im- 
portance than the relations between a Dauphi- 
ness and a favourite, at least in the eyes of all 
save the most contemptible of palace intriguers, had 
arisen to occupy public attention. 

The indignation of the Bretons against d'Aiguillon 
had been very far from appeased by the restoration of 
their Parliament and the recall of the duke. They had 
not ceased to demand justice upon their late governor, 
whom, besides the grievances relative to his adminis- 
tration, they accused of suborning witnesses to assist 
in the conviction of La Chalotais and others; and at 
length d'Aiguillon found himself compelled to request 
the King to allow him to be brought to trial, in order 
that he might have an opportunity of refuting the 
charges against him. Formal proceedings were ac- 
cordingly commenced before the Parliament of Paris 
(April 14, 1770), Louis himself presiding at the open- 
ing sitting and " comporting himself like a kind father 
in the midst of beloved children."^ Before, however, 
the trial had been in progress very long, it became evi- 
dent that the judges were animated by no friendly 
feelings towards the duke, and determined to submit 
his conduct in Brittany to the most searching investi- 
gation. D'Aiguillon began to be seriously alarmed 
(" The best reasons," he wrote to his friend, the Chev- 
alier de Balleroy, " have difficulty in overcoming preju- 
dice, partiality and intrigue"), and to see before him a 

^Hardy's Journal des evenements qu'ils parviennent a ma con- 
fiaissance. 

141 



142 MADAME DU BARRY 

humiliating sentence and possibly severe punishment, 
for there can be very little doubt that the charges 
against him were in the main but too well justified, 
though, according to his apologist, M. Marcel Marion,' 
many of the witnesses for the prosecution perjured 
themselves in the most shameful manner. 

It was now that d'Aiguillon reaped the reward of his 
foresight in securing the friendship of one who had 
the ear of the King. Whether, as contemporary gossip 
alleges, Madame du Barry had become the mistress of 
the duke is, to say the least, doubtful — it would seem 
indeed to rest on no better evidence than the charge 
that Madame de Pompadour was the mistress of 
Choiseul — ^but, at the same time, there can be no ques- 
tion that the favourite was sincerely attached to 
d'Aiguillon, and, as soon as she understood the danger 
which threatened him, exerted all her influence to in- 
duce the King to put a stop to the trial. 

Her task was not a difficult one. The feeling of 
absolute authority was, as we have already observed, 
as strong in Louis XV. as his predecessor, and he had 
from the first regarded with disfavour an investigation 
into the conduct of a person who had been the repre- 
sentative of royalty in Brittany and might well plead 
the orders of the King for many of the acts which 
had aroused so much indignation in that province. 
Moreover, it is highly probable that Maupeou, who' 
perceived in an interference with the course of the trial 
an excellent opportunity for a great quaf-rel with the 
Parliament, supported by his counsels the solicitations 
of Madame du Barry, and thus removed any lingering 
scruples which the King might still have entertained 
about perpetrating so scandalous an abuse of his power. 

Accordingly, on July 27, 1770, a Bed of Justice was 

"^ La Bretagne et le Due d'Aiguillon, 1753-1770, par M. Marcel 
Marion (Paris, 1898). 



MADAME DU BARRY 143 

held at Versailles, and the Parliament informed that a 
prosecution which tended to submit to its inspection the 
secrecy of the King's administration, the execution O'f 
his orders, and the personal use of his authority, could 
not be allowed to continue, declared the conduct both 
of d'Aiguillon and of the Breton magistrates whom 
he had persecuted " irreproachable," annulled the pro- 
ceedings, and imposed the most absolute silence on all 
concerned.^ 

It would have been difficult to show more utter dis- 
regard for all judicial forms. " It seemed," says an 
indignant contemporary writer, *' that the King had 
been induced to give the greatest eclat to this assembly, 
merely that it might more absolutely become the object 
of the derision of France and of all Europe. He was 
perhaps the only person in his kingdom who was not 
ashamed of it. That very evening he invited the Due 
d'Aiguillon to be of the party to Marly,* and admitted 
him to the honour of supping with him.^ 

The Parliament returned from the Bed of Justice 
" transported with rage," and, on July 2, threw down 
the gauntlet to royal absolutism and fulminated a de- 
cree setting forth that the proceedings on which the 
King had seen fit tO' impose his veto contained '' the 
basis of grave proofs compromising the honour of the 
Due d'Aiguillon," whom they, in consequence, declared 
incapable of exercising any functions belonging to the 

^Martin's Histoire de France jusqu'en 1789, xvi. 279. 

* Only a small portion of the Court accompanied the King on 
his visits to Marly, and Louis XV. always nominated those whom 
he desired should be of the party. 

^ Vie privee de Louis XV., vol. iv. p. 141, As we recently saw 
this book referred to in an English weekly review as if it were 
a mere chronique scandaleuse, we may here remark that such 
is very far from being the case. The title is, indeed, somewhat 
of a misnomer, as the work is far more concerned with the 
public than the private actions of Louis XV., and is of no small 
value to the serious historian, if only for the admirable account 
it contains of the struggle between the King and the Parliaments. 



144 MADAME DU BARRY 

peerage until he had purged himself therefrom by due 
process of law. 

The Council quashed the decree of the Parliament. 
The Parliament, after fruitless remonstrances, decreed 
anew that the prosecution could not be considered 
terminated by an arbitrary act of absolute authority, 
and were, as usual, supported by the provincial courts. 
The Parliaments of Rennes and Bordeaux were par- 
ticularly violent. The former ordered two memorials 
in favour of d'Aiguillon to be burned by the public ex- 
ecutioner, refused to register the royal edict of June 
2y, and sent energetic remonstrances to the Chancellor. 
The latter forbade the inhabitants of the duchy of 
Aiguillon tO' bring their appeals before it, thus con- 
firming the decree of the Parliament of Paris depriv- 
ing the duke of his privileges. The King replied by 
compelling the Parliament of Rennes tO' register the 
obnoxious edict by force, caused two of its members, 
both noblemen, to be arrested and imprisoned at Com- 
piegne, and threw Dupaty, the attorney-general of the 
Parliament of Bordeaux, into a gloomy dungeon in the 
Chateau of Pierre-Encise, at the gates of Lyons, from 
which, however, he was presently released, through the 
mediation of Madame du Barry.^ 

Urged on by Maupeou, who had persuaded him to 
regard the union between the Parliaments as a criminal 
confederation directed against his royal authority, and 
by the favourite, " who' felt herself personally affected'' 
by the decree which pronounced the honour of her 
protege compromised, Louis XV. now determined on 
a coup d'Etat to bring the insolent judges to reason. 
At a meeting of the Council on the evening of Septem- 
ber 2, he announced his intention of holding a Bed of 

" Martin's Hisfoire de France jusqu'en 1789, xvi. 280. Vatel's 
Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 424. Flammermont's Le Chan- 
celier Maupeou et les Parlements, p. 87, et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 145 

Justice on the following day, not at Versailles, but in 
Paris, at the Palais de Justice; and early next morn- 
ing the Parisians were astonished to hear the sound of 
cannon and to see the King, who seldom visited his 
capital, drive into the Place Louis XV., escorted by 
four companies of musketeers, and enter the Palais, 
accompanied by the Chancellor in his robes of office/ 

The monarch entered the Salle des Seances, where 
the members of the Parliament were assembled, took his 
seat, and having, through the mouth of Maupeou, up- 
braided them with their insubordinate conduct in the 
most unmeasured terms, caused all the documents con- 
nected with the prosecution of d'Aiguillon to be handed 
over to him, ordered the decrees and resolutions 
against the duke to be effaced from the registers, and 
forbade the Parliament ever to reopen the affair on 
any pretext whatsoever. 

The magistrates appear to have been too thunder- 
struck by this unwonted display of energy, on the part 
of a sovereign whose feebleness had become a byword, 
to have taken any steps for three days, when they met 
and passed a resolution accusng the King of '' a pre- 
meditated plan to change the form of government, and 
to substitute for the equable force of laws the irregular 
concussions of arbitrary power"; after which they 
adjourned for the autumn vacation, and for three 
months there was peace. 

When, on September 2, Louis XV. had announced 
to the Council his intention to hold a bed of justice on 
the following day, Choiseul, shrewdly suspecting what 
was in the air, had begged the King to excuse him 
from attending, on the plea that he had arranged to 
start that evening for La Ferte-Vidame, to pay a 

'Letter of Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole, September 



146 MADAME DU BARRY 

long-promised visit to La Borde, the Court banker; 
indeed, from the very commencement of the prosecu- 
tion of d'Aiguillon the Minister had maintained an at- 
titude of the strictest neutrahty. There can be no 
question that his sympathies were entirely with the 
Parliaments, and almost equally certain that he had 
encouraged the Breton magistrates at first to resist 
and afterwards to attack the duke. But he was too 
keen-sighted to imagine that there was much hope of 
the Parliaments compelling the King to yield, spurred 
on as Louis was by the favourite, incited, in her turn, 
by her reputed lover, d'Aiguillon. 

Madame du Barry and her allies, however, were 
determined to prevent their adversary from deriving 
any advantage from this policy of self-effacement, and 
did not scruple to charge him with concealing his hand 
and secretly sustaining the magistrates in their resist- 
ance ; and, unfortunately for the Minster, an act of ex- 
traordinary indiscretion on the part of his evil genius, 
Madame de Gramont, lent but too much colour to these 
accusations. 

On August 20, Mercy reports to Maria Theresa that 
" the Due de Choiseul had had a violent altercation 
with the Due de Richelieu, owing to the latter having 
declared that the Duchesse de Gramont, while passing 
through Provence and Languedoc, on her way to the 
waters of Bareges, had sought to stir up the Parlia- 
ments of those provinces against the decisions of the 
Court in the affair of the Due d'Aiguillon." 

It is probable, as M. Flammermont observes, that 
this was a calumny, and that Madame de Gramont had 
confined herself to stating her own opinions on the 
matter which the whole kingdom was discussing. The 
duchess was not the woman to mince her words where 
her successful rival and her brother's most bitter enemy 
were concerned, but that did not prove that she was 



MADAME DU BARRY 147 

the mouthpiece of a conspiracy organised by Choiseul.^ 
Nevertheless, the incident was not without its effect 
upon the King, who from that moment treated the 
Minister with marked coldness, and, though he con- 
tinued to transact business with him and invite him to 
his supper-parties, did not honour him with a single 
word of kindness or confidence/ 

In point of fact, Choiseul at this period had far too 
much on his hands to spend his time in encouraging 
the Parliaments to resist the King by decrees and 
remonstrances. He was meditating a stroke whereby 
he intended to rid himself of his enemies and render 
his services indispensable to his royal master. 

In 1766, a small English settlement, which received 
the name of Port Egmont, after the Earl of Egmont, 
First Lord of the Admiralty, had been established on 
one of the Falkland Islands, a group the importance of 
which was then greatly overestimated. It was far from 
a valuable possession, but Spain, which still asserted a 
nominal supremacy over a large portion of the South 
Seas, took umbrage, and, without making any formal 
complaint to the English Government, in June 1770 
the Governor of Buenos Ayres, Don Francesco Buc- 
carelli, despatched an armament, which compelled the 
little garrison to surrender and carried them away 
prisoners. 

When the news of this high-handed proceeding 
reached London, the English Government sent orders 
to its representative at Madrid to demand in peremp- 
tory terms the restitution of the Falkland Islands and 
the disavowal of Buccarelli's action, and, in view of a 

possible refusal, active preparations were made for 

10 
war. 

* M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 
p. loi. ^ Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. 146. 

" Stanhope's " History of England from the Peace of Utrecht," 
V. 416, et seq. 



148 MADAME DU BARRY 

Spain was in no^ condition tO' go to war, and, unsup- 
ported, would probably have shrunk from so unequal a 
struggle. But, by the terms of the Family Compact of 
1 76 1, France was bound to come tO' her aid, with men 
and ships, against any Power with which she might be- 
come involved in hostilities; and, relying on the sup- 
port of his ally, Carlos III. declined to grant the full 
measure of reparation that England claimed, and inti- 
mated very plainly that he was prepared to abide by 
the consequences. 

Everything now depended upon France, for Gri- 
maldi, the Spanish Prime Minister, who governed his 
master, was devoted to French interests, and might be 
relied upon tO' act in accordance with the wishes of the 
Cabinet of Versailles." If France were unwilling to 
go to war and advised conciliation, Spain would un- 
doubtedly comply with England's demands ; if, on the 
other hand, she counselled resistance, hostilities must 
as certainly follow. 

The conduct of Choiseul at this juncture has been 
the subject of much discussion, and with good reason, 
since it varied with the changes in the political situation 
in France. M. Gaston Maugras, his latest biographer, 
asserts that the Minister's despatches prove beyond 
a doubt that he was sincerely desirous of preserving 
the peace."^ This may be true in regard to the later 
despatches, though even in some of these there is a 
ring of insincerity; but the earher ones, and particu- 
larly those written in the summer of 1770, are distinctly 
belligerent in tone and, in our judgment, there can be 

""His (Grimaldi's) doctrine is absolutely French; guided in 
everything by the French closet, he ever has the French interest 
in view, and considers Spain in a secondary light. I do not 
accuse him of being a false servant, as I really think he con- 
siders such a system most salutary for the master he serves ; at 
least he has caused him to adopt it." — " Diaries and Correspond- 
ence of James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury," i. 56. 

" Le Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 



MADAME DU BARRY 149 

no question that Cholsetil both desired war and did his 
utmost to bring it about. 

That such should have been the case is scarcely a 
matter for surprise, when we consider that however 
disastrous such a conflict might have been to France, it 
w^ould undoubtedly have been to the personal advan- 
tage of the Minister. D'Aiguillon, Maupeou, and Ter- 
ray, aided by Madame du Barry, were working assid- 
uously to effect his downfall and, he had grave reason 
to believe, were already within measurable distance of 
attaining their object. But, in the event of war, their 
machinations would be completely checkmated; nay 
more, they would recoil upon their own heads, for then 
Choiseul, who was familiar with the condition and 
needs of both army and navy, who' possessed the con- 
fidence of the Courts of Madrid and Vienna, and could 
count upon the support of the magistracy, would be- 
come an indispensable man ; while his rivals, whose in- 
trigues had exasperated the Parliament and enhanced 
the difficult)^ of obtaining its consent to the fresh taxa- 
tion which hostilities would render necessary, would be 
sent about their business." '' I have no reason to 
doubt," wrote Mercy, " that the Due de Choiseul be- 
lieved that war would strengthen his position and ren- 
der his services necessary."" 

But if Choiseul desired war, it was far otherwise 
with his master. Whatever his faults have been, Louis 
XV. was not lacking In intelligence, and to enter upon 
another conflict while France was still suffering from 
the exhaustion produced by the last, over a mere ques- 
tion of etiquette in which she had not the smallest Inter- 
est, appeared to him, as indeed it was, the height of 
insanity. Moreover, war would mean the triumph of 
the Parliament and the sacrifice of the Chancellor and 

'' Mr. J. B. Perkins' " France under Louis XV.," ii. 247. 
^* Mercy to Maria Theresa, September 19, 1770. 



I50 MADAME DU BARRY 

the Comptroller-General, and probably d'Aiguillon as 
well, to its resentment, for the Parliament would then 
be in a position to dictate terms to the King, and there 
could be little doubt what those terms would be. 
Nothing, Louis determined, should induce him to sub- 
mit to so great a humiliation, and he intimated his 
wishes to Choiseul in unmistakable terms. 

Choiseul had, of course, no option but to obey, and, 
accordingly, made some attempts to quench the flame 
which he had been so industriously fanning. But the 
belligerent tone of his earlier despatches had done their 
work but too well; Spain, in the belief that France 
would support her, had been actively engaged in pre- 
paring for hostilities, the people were clamouring for 
war, and Grimaldi replied that, if he advised Carlos III. 
to accede to the English demands, he would be stoned 
by the populace. Little hope of a settlement now re- 
mained, and in October Choiseul asked the Council for 
8,000,000 livres wherewith to prepare for the coming 
struggle.^^ 

Some further weeks were wasted in fruitless nego- 
tiations, and, on December 3, Frances, the French 
Ambassador at St. James's, informed Choiseul that the 
English Government were at the end of their patience 
and that war was inevitable. The Minister thereupon 
adopted a course which, we venture to think, must en- 
tirely destroy any claim which he might otherwise have 
upon our sympathy. He took upon himself to send 
Prince Masserano, the Spanish Ambassador in Lon- 
don, contrary instructions to those given him by the 
King of Spain, and to beg him to present to the Eng- 
lish Government sub spe rati a plan of accommoda- 
tion."^^ At the same time, however, he wrote to Gri- 

'^ Mr. J. B. Perkins' " France under Louis XV.," ii. 249. 
^^ Masserano did not dare to present this plan himself to the 
English Government, but requested the French Ambassador to 



MADAME DU BARRY 151 

maldi at Madrid informing him of what he had done, 
and explaining that his object was " to silence the 
lying tongues that represent to the King that I am 
stirring up war through personal ambition." 

" It is obvious," observes that well-informed and 
impartial historian, M. Flammermont, " that Choiseul 
had presented this plan because he was almost certain 
that it would not be ratified by Spain, and that war was 
inevitable. He desired to prove his good-will and to 
show that he was devoted to the cause of peace in order 
to silence his enemies, but at the bottom of his heart 
he desired war and was secretly prepared for it."" 

Choiseul's enemies, indeed, were fully alive to the 
gravity of the situation as regarded themselves, and 
were putting forth every effort to crush the Minister 
ere he could contrive to involve the country in war 
in order to crush them. Their designs were facil- 
itated by the fact that the quarrel between the King 
and the Parliament of Paris had now reached an acute 
stage. At the opening of the winter session on Decem- 
ber 3, an edict had been issued interdicting all joint 
action between the Parliament of Paris and the provin- 

lay it before Lord North. Frances complied and writes to 
Choiseul : 

" MoNSEiGNEUR, — The Prime Minister (Lord North) granted 
me a rendezvous on Thursday, to give me an answer in regard 
to the new plan. He had given a dinner to the lord Sandwich 
(sic) ; the repast lasted a long time, and the guests were intoxi- 
cated with wine. At length, at nine o'clock in the evening, I 
found my lord North, who was as drunk as a hackney-coachman, 
while all the members of the British Council were as mellow 
(bien conditionnes) as their chief. The circumstance, in a little 
affair affecting the fate of three crowns, is not without interest." 

The Ambassador adds that Lord North, although so drunk, 
seemed to grasp every point that was put before him as easily 
as if he had been perfectly sober, ''car ces messieurs conservent 
machinalenient de la logique et du raissonement dans I'ivrognerie 
par riiabitude qu'ils en ont contractee." 

" M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et hs Parle- 
ments, p. 175, et seq. 



152 MADAME DU BARRY 

cial Parliaments, and all opposition to the enforcement 
of royal edicts, under pain of deprivation of office. 
This edict the judges indignantly refused to register; 
indeed, to have done so would have been to admit 
themselves wholly in the wrong, and there can be no 
doubt that it had been framed by Maupeou with the 
deliberate intention of bringing matters to a crisis. 
After a bed of justice had been held at Versailles, 
where the angry magistrates were further exasperated 
by the sight of their enemy, d'Aiguillon, whom they 
had decreed suspended from the privileges of his rank, 
seated among the peers, and various futile remon- 
strances had been addressed to the King, the Parlia- 
ment declared that " their profound affliction did not 
leave their minds sufficiently free to decide upon the 
fortunes, lives, and honour of the King's subjects,'* 
and closed the Law Courts." 

The cabal was not slow to profit by the turn which 
events had taken. Maupeou entreated the King to 
dismiss Choiseul, declaring that the disgrace of the 
duke would have the immediate effect of assuring 
peace abroad, by compelling Spain to accede to Eng- 
land's demands, and at home, by demonstrating to the 
Parliament that it could no longer reckon on the 
support of a powerful Minister, and on the embarrass- 
ments that a great war would occasion: the Govern- 
ment. His arguments were supported by Terray, who 
felt that he would certainly be disgraced if Choiseul 
were not, by d'Aiguillon, who feared that the Parlia- 
ment would resume its proceedings against him if 
Maupeou and Terray were exiled, and, finally by 
Madame du Barry, "who loved the Due d'Aiguillon 
too tenderly to abandon him on this occasion." 
Choiseul, on his side, defended himself vigorously, and 

** Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. 146. Martin's Histoire de 
France jusqu'en 1789, xv. 282. 



MADAME DU BARRY 153 

did not hesitate to carry the war into the enemy's 
camp, assuring the King- that the wisest course to 
adopt in regard to the ParHament would be to con- 
cihate it by the dismissal of the Chancellor and the 
Comptroller-General, in which event the judges would 
doubtless accept the recent edict, with certain indis- 
pensable modifications, and lend themselves to any 
fresh taxation which circumstances might render 
necessary. 

Louis XV. was at a loss what to do. On the one 
hand, he felt that Choiseul was the best of his Minis- 
ters, and that he would cover himself with odium by 
sacrificing to a low-born favourite and an unworthy 
cabal the man who had consolidated the Austrian 
alliance, negotiated the Family Compact, annexed 
Corsica to France, and reestablished his armies and 
his fleet ; added to which he was ashamed to abandon 
his cousin, the King of Spain, at the moment when 
his concurrence was absolutely necessary. But he 
feared and hated the Parliament, from which he hoped 
Maupeou and Terray were about to deliver him, and, 
above all, he desired to have peace and quiet in his 
private life, and to put an end to the incessant com- 
plaints and solicitations of his mistress." 

While the King hesitated, events abroad were has- 
tening to a crisis. Wearying of the obstinacy of 
Spain, the English Government sent orders to Karris'"* 
to leave Madrid, and if Choiseul had remained in 
office there can be little doubt that hostilities would 
have been commenced by England, and that France 

*^M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parle- 
ments, p. 179. 

^"^ James Harris, afterwards first Earl of Malmesbury. He 
was at this time only twenty-four, but had already given promise 
of those great abilities which were to cause Talleyrand to ob- 
serve : "/^ crois que Lord Malmesbury etait le plus habile Min~ 
istre que vous avies de son temps; c'etait inutile de le devancer; 
il falloit de suivre de pres." 



154 MADAME DU BARRY 

would have come to the assistance of her ally, under 
the terms of the Family Compact. 

The intervention of the Prince de Conde deter- 
mined Louis to follov^ the counsels of the favourite 
and her supporters and dismiss Choiseul. During the 
visit to Compiegne, in the preceding summer, the 
cabal, apprehensive that its attacks upon the chief 
Minister might be attributed by the King to motives 
of personal enmity and private ambition, had deemed 
it prudent to seek some ally whose high position placed 
him above such suspicions and who enjoyed the con- 
fidence of the monarch. They found these qualifica- 
tions in Conde, who was badly disposed towards 
Choiseul, tO' whose influence he ascribed the fact that 
the hand of the wealthy Mademoiselle de Penthievre 
had been bestowed upon the Due de Chartres, instead 
of upon his own son, the Due de Bourbon, and, more- 
over, aspired to the command of the army, an aspira- 
tion which the Minister had not seen fit to encourage. 

Proposals of alliance were accordingly made to the 
prince, some writers say by Terray, who was chief of 
his council, others through the Princesse de Monaco, 
his mistress, who had been gained over to the interests 
of the cabal by Cromot, chief clerk of the Exchequer, 
a bitter enemy of Choiseul; and Conde accepted the 
role that was offered him on three conditions: first, 
that the appointment of Choiseul's successor at the 
Ministry of War should rest with him; secondly, that 
he should have the command of the army in the event 
of war; and thirdly, that the post of Grand Master 
of the Artillery should be revived in his favour. 

The prince conducted his manoeuvres with so much 
skill that up to the last moment Choiseul was unaware 
who was the principal agent of his ruin. On Decem- 
ber 19, Conde came over from Chantilly and had an 
audience of the King, and as soon as he had sue- 



MADAME DU BARRY 155 

ceeded in triumphing over the irresolution of the 
monarch and had obtained his promise that Choiseul 
should be dismissed, returned home. 

However, Louis still hesitated. To a person of his 
vacillating temperament, to make a resolution is one 
thing, to give effect to it is quite another, and though 
that same evening he wrote the lettre-de-cachet an- 
nouncing his disgrace to Choiseul, he could not make 
up his mind to send it, and for three days carried it 
about in his pocket.^^ 

The cabal was in the utmost alarm, for any day now 
might bring the news that England had declared war, 
in which event all its fine schemes would collapse like 
a house of cards. Then Maupeou burned his boats. 
Requesting an audience of the King, he reiterated his 
conviction that Choiseul was deceiving him and 
secretly doing his utmost tO' plunge the country into 
war, which would necessitate the abandonment of the 
campaign against the Parliament and the sacrifice of 
himself and Terray to the resentment of the judges; 
and begged his Majesty's leave tO' retire from office, 
instead of waiting to be dismissed.'^ At the same time, 
Madame du Barry, prompted by d'Aiguillon, sug- 
gested to the King that he should send for and ques- 
tion the Abbe de la Ville, chief clerk of the Foreign 
Office, from whom he would be able to acertain what 
were the real intentions of the Minister regarding the 
Anglo-Spanish quarrel. 

This Abbe de la Ville had begun life as a Jesuit, 
and, though he had long since abandoned that Order, 

^According to the Vie privee de Louis XV., the king had one 
'evening, some little time before this, " when inflamed with love 
and heated with wine," written a lettre-de-cachet at the instance 
of the favourite; but, on coming to his senses the following 
morning, had promptly destroyed it. 

^^ M. Flammermonfs Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 
p. 182. 



156 MADAME DU BARRY 

had not failed to profit by the lessons he had learned 
in his youth. He had a grudge against Choiseul, 
"who despised his advice, his experience, and his per- 
son," and was only too^ ready to betray him to any one 
who was in a position to remunerate his treachery. 

According to Besenval, when questioned by Louis 
XV. the abbe replied that, as it was his chief's in- 
variable practice to write even the most unimportant 
despatches with his own hand, he was unable to en- 
lighten him as tO' the Minister's real intentions. But 
it would be very easy for his Majesty to ascertain. 
Let himi send for M. de Choiseul and order him to 
draft a letter to the King of Spain which should de- 
clare tO' that prince that his Majesty was absolutely 
determined tO' maintain peace, and that no considera- 
tion would induce him to involve his kingdom in war. 
If, said he, the Minister obeyed without hesitation, it 
would be a proof that he was sincerely desirous for 
peace; if, on the contrary, he raised objections, no one 
could doubt that he was working for war. 

"The plot,'' remarks the chronicler, "was adroitly 
woven, and could not fail to attain its object; for it 
was easy tO' calculate that M. de Choiseul, who had 
just despatched a courier tO' Spain with proposals of 
accommodation, would reply to the King that, before 
writing tO' that Court, it was necessary to await the 
answer to the last plan that he had sent to it; that 
if it were accepted, the letter would be unneces- 
sary; if it were rejected, there would be still time to 
write. "^^ 

This incident, as related by Besenval, which is to be 
found in the works of the Goncourts, Carlyle, and 
other writers of authority, has been generally accepted, 
but it is doubtful whether the baron's version is the 

^^Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Barriere), 
i. 26y et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 157 

correct one. Recent research has revealed that many 
of the despatches of Choiseul preserved in the Span- 
ish Archives are not in the handwriting of the Min- 
ister himself, but are only signed by him/* and we 
are, therefore, of opinion that the Abbe de la Ville 
was cognisant of Choiseul's negotiations, and that 
what he really did was to communicate to Louis XV. 
the contents of his chief's last despatch to Grimaldi, 
written on December 19, in which, while mildly ad- 
vising peace, Choiseul added these words : 

"If you do' not adopt this course {i.e., come to 
terms with England), it will be necessary to begin war 
at the same time, that is to say, towards the end of 
January; and, in that event, you must advise me of 
the day on which you propose to seize the English 
vessels in your ports. '"^ 

However that may be, Louis XV. determined tO' 
have a final explanation with Choiseul ; and at a meet- 
ing of the Council held on December 23, the King, 
"with a certain quivering of the chin, which was al- 
ways the indication of a troubled mind," insisted on 
the latter informing him at once what was the exact 
situation of affairs, and obtained the Minister's con- 
fession that war was inevitable, and that it was 
necessary to prepare for it. Then the monarch cried 
furiously, '^Monsieur, je vous avals dit que je ne 
voulais point la guerre," and he ordered Choiseul to 
enjoin immediately upon the Marquis d'Ossun, the 
French Ambassador at Madrid, to make the greatest 
efforts to induce Carlos IIL to subscribe to the En- 
glish conditions. 

^*M. Vatel, to whom the credit of this discovery belongs, takes 
advantage of it to 'endeavour to discredit the whole story about 
the Abbe de la Ville, in the interests of Madame du Barry, but 
there can be no doubt that Besenval was well informed in regard 
to the main facts. 

'^ Cited by Mr. J. B. Perkins in " France under Louis XV.," ii. 

249. 



158 MADAME DU BARRY 

The same day a courier carried to Spain the last 
despatch of Choiseul, and another, sent by a different 
route, a letter from Louis XV. to his cousin, imploring 
him to make some sacrifice for the sake of peace, and 
a note announcing to d'Ossun the disgrace of his chief 
Minister. 

In the same Council, Choiseul, though unaware of 
the despatch of the second courier, comprehended that 
his dismissal had been decided upon. As he offered 
the pen to the King tO' sign the marriage contract of 
the Due de la Rochefoucauld, Louis, with frowning 
brow, snatched it out of his hand, and, after using it, 
flung it angrily on the table, instead of returning it 
to the duke.'^ 

The following morning, the 24th, Choiseul's ante- 
chamber was, as usual, crowded with suitors. The 
Due de la Vrilliere,'^ Commandeur des Ordres to the 
King {''le grand congedieur ordinaire''), entered, re- 
quested an immediate audience of the Minister, and, 
with some hypocritical words of condolence — he was 
one of Madame du Barry's henchmen, and, like Riche- 
lieu, an uncle of d'Aiguillon — handed him the lettre- 
de-cachet which Louis had written three days before. 

"I order my cousin to deliver his resignation of his 
offices of Secretary of State and Surintendant des 

^^Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Barriere), 
i. 270. Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 182 et seq. 

^^ Louis Phelypeaux, better known under his former title of 
Comte de Saint-Florentin. He had been created a duke the 
previous year. The three names by which he was known at 
different periods of his life, Phelypeaux, Saint-Florentin, and La 
Vrilliere, procured him the following mordant epitaph : 

" Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun, 
Ayant parte trois noms et n'en laissant aucun." — 

M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de Choi- 
seul, p. i. 



MADAME DU BARRY 159 

Postes into the hands of the Due de la Vrilliere and 
to retire to Chanteloup until further orders from me. 

''Louis."'' 

Such were the terms in which Louis XV. dismissed 
the Minister to whom had been confided for twelve 
years the destinies of France. 

Choiseul was required to leave Versailles within two 
hours, while only twenty-four were allowed him in 
which to make his preparations for quitting the capital. 
He started at once for Paris, where he found the 
duchess about to sit down to dinner. 

''You have the appearance of an exiled man," said 
she, laughing. "But sit down, your dinner will not 
taste the worse for that." And they dined with ex- 
cellent appetites.'^ 

That Choiseul deserved his fate there can, we think, 
be little doubt. No condemnation indeed can well be 
too strong for a Minister who, for the sake of out- 
witting his private enemies and preserving his own 
ascendency, is prepared to plunge his country into all 
the horrors of war. Nevertheless, the Parisians, who 

^^ Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. 62; communicated by Gabriel, 
Due de Choiseul, who possessed the original letter. 

The instructions to La Vrilliere, also in the King's handwriting, 
show to what a point he had carried his irritation against the 
disgraced Minister : " The Due de La Vrilliere will deliver the 
accompanying orders to MM. de Choiseul (Choiseul and his 
cousin, the Due de Choiseul-Praslin, Minister of the Marine), 
and will bring me their resignations. Were it not on account 
of Madame de Choiseul, I would have exiled her husband else- 
where, as his estate is situated in his government (Touraine) ; 
but he will conduct himself as if he were not residing there, and 
will see no one, except his family and those to whom I may 
give permission to visit him." 

The lettre-de-cachet exiling the Due de Praslin contained only 
two lines : " I have no further need of your services, and I exile 
you to Praslin, whither you will betake yourself within twenty- 
four hours." 

^^M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et la Duchesse de Choi-' 
seul, p. 3. 



i6o MADAME DU BARRY 

did not know what we know to-day, and who saw in 
him only an able and patriotic statesman sacrificed to 
the machinations of an unpopular cabal, chose to make 
of him a kind of hero. As soon as the news of his 
disgrace reached the capital, the whole city was in a 
ferment of excitement. Expressions of regret and 
indignation were heard on every side, and all classes 
united in manifestations of sympathy. Although he 
had been forbidden to receive visits from any but mem- 
bers of his own family during the short time he was 
permitted to remain in Paris, and two exempts had 
been stationed by the Lieutenant of Police at his door 
to ensure that this order was observed, his numerous 
friends, headed by the Due de Chartres, famous in 
after years under the name of Philippe Egalite, forced 
their way into the house to offer him their condolences 
and bid him farewell. All the streets leading to the 
Rue de Richelieu, in which the Hotel de Choiseul was 
situated, were so blocked with the carriages of people 
who came to inscribe their names in his visitors' book, 
as a last token of esteem and affection "for the great 
Minister whom France had lost," that for some hours 
ordinary traffic was entirely suspended. As, in spite 
of the large emoluments of his different offices and his 
wife's wealth, he was known to have contracted im- 
mense debts and to be embarrassed for money, his 
friends hastened to place their credit at his disposal, 
and within a few hours these offers amounted to no 
less a sum than four million livres.^" 

The exiled Minister's departure on the morrow par- 
took of the nature of a veritable triumph. An enor- 
mous crowd lined the streets from his hotel to the 
Barriere d'Enfer, while the windows and even the 
roofs of the houses were thronged with spectators; 

^'^ M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 
p. i86. Belleval's Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 143. 



MADAME DU BARRY i6i 

and when the coach containing the duke and duchess 
appeared, followed by a long cortege of their friends' 
carriages, the multitude broke forth into loud and con- 
tinued acclamations. "Never has disgrace been ac- 
companied by so much glory," wrote Madame du 
Deffand. "There is no such example in histories 
ancient or modern." 

The popular excitement continued long after the 
departure of Choiseul and showed itself in a hundred 
different ways. Portraits and busts of the duke were 
seen everywhere ; medals were struck to perpetuate the 
memory of the event ; snuff-boxes bearing on one side 
the head of Choiseul and on the other that of Sully, 
the great Minister of Henri IV., were sold in the 
streets;^' and Moreau painted a charming picture rep- 
resenting Choiseul supporting France, Glory in the 
act of depositing a crown of laurel on the duke's head, 
while people prostrated themselves at his feet, and 
Envy, in a corner, turned away her head in anger. 
Verses in praise of the fallen Minister and satirising 
his enemies and the King circulated everywhere, and 
the following song obtained a great vogue : 

" Le Blen-Aime de TAlmanach 
N'est pas le Bien-Aime de France. 
II fait tout ab hoc et ah hac 
Le Bien-Aime de TAlmanach. 

" II met tout dans le meme sac 
Et la Justice et la Finance ; 
Le Bien-Aime de I'Almanach 
N'est pas le Bien-Aime de France."^ 

Until now Ministers in exile had received few 
marks of sympathy or attachment, even from their 

^^"Tiens!" cried the witty actress, Sophie Arnould, on being 
shown one of these. "They have put the receipts and the ex- 
penses together," 

^^ Cited in Anecdotes sur Madame la Comtesse du Barry, p. 193. 



1 62 MADAME DU BARRY 

relatives and dearest friends. Maurepas at Bourges, 
Machault at Arnouville, d'Argenson at Ormes, and 
Bernis at Soissons had lived in the most complete isola- 
tion; people dared not mention their names at Court, 
much less openly brave the royal displeasure by visiting 
them. But times had changed. The age and feeble- 
ness of the King and the disunion in the Royal Family 
had permeated the whole Court with a spirit of in- 
dependence and insubordination hitherto unknown, 
and which, in the ensuing reign, was to assume alarm- 
ing proportions. The Dauphiness and the Due de 
Chartres did not attempt to conceal the regret Vv^ith 
which the exile of Choiseul inspired them, and the 
frequency of the requests made to him for permission 
to visit the disgraced Minister compelled Louis to give 
a sort of qualified consent, and he, accordingly, replied 
to all applicants, " I neither permit nor forbid you.'"' 
Thenceforth a continuous stream of prominent per- 
sons repaired to Chanteloup, where Choiseul, notwith- 
standing his enormous debts, lived in almost regal 
state and dispensed the most magnificent hospitality. 
" During the four years that the exile of the Minister 
lasted," says Dutens, " there was scarcely a day on 
which some person from the Court did not arrive at 
or leave Chanteloup, and the King was surprised to 
learn that its salons were frequently more brilliant 
than those of Versailles. The secrets of the Cabinet 
were as well known there as at Versailles, and the er- 

^^ M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de 
Choiseul, p. 78. 

The ex-Comptroller-General, Maynon dTnvau, having re- 
quested permission, La Vrilliere wrote : " I have submitted to the 
King the letter wherein you ask permission to go to Chanteloup, 
and his Majesty has done me the honour to reply that he has 
never accorded any one permission to go there, but that he has 
not refused, and that he has left those who have asked the 
liberty of themselves deciding what they will do." — E. and J. de 
Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 118. 



MADAME DU BARRY 163 

rors of the new Ministry were so strictly examined 
that the company of Chanteloup was dreaded as a 
tribunal. Even the King became curious to learn its 
decisions, and he frequently asked those who returned 
thence, 'What do they say at Chanteloup ?' 



)J >J34 



'^'^Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose, ii. 86. The memoirs 
of the time contain some interesting particulars about this mag- 
nificent chateau and the splendour which Choiseul maintained 
there. Cheverny says that those who drove up at night fancied 
they were entering Versailles, owing to the immense extent of 
the buildings and the lavish manner in which they were lighted 
up, both within and without; and that he occupied twenty min- 
utes in passing along the corridors of the chateau from the 
apartments allotted to him to those of a fellow-guest. Dutens 
describes it as " a delightful place, where the most complete 
and the most magnificent establishment" was kept up that I have 
seen at the house of any great nobleman in Europe " ; and tells 
us that, on the occasion when he visited it, there were four 
hundred persons living in the house, including those in the 
service of the duke, fifty-four of whom were in livery, and that 
the account for bread alone amounted to three hundred livres a 
day. Small wonder that Choiseul's friends had to come to his 
assistance ! 



Memoirs— 6 Vol. 2 



CHAPTER XII 

CHOISEUL disgraced, Spain, as had been fore^ 
seen, hastened to comply with the EngHsh de- 
mands, and Louis XV. and Maupeou found 
their hands free to deal with the Parliament, which, 
it will be remembered, had closed the courts as a pro- 
test against the edict of December 3. 

This was a step to which the Parliament had had 
recourse before on several occasions, and generally 
with some degree of success. Closing the courts often 
brought temporary exile and other annoyances to the 
judges, but the vexation to the Government and in- 
convenience to the community at large caused by the 
suspension of justice had ended in the magistracy ob- 
taining concessions. 

The present rupture, however, was destined to have 
a very different termination. In lettres de jussion, 
five times repeated, the King ordered the Parliament 
to resume its functions, and the members as often re- 
fused to obey. On the night of January 19-20, each 
judge was roused from his slumbers by two Mus- 
keteers, who presented him with an order from the 
King to resume his duties, to which he was to answer 
a simple yes or no in writing, and that immediately 
and without taking counsel with any one. A few, 
alarmed by this nocturnal summons, were afraid to 
signify a formal disobedience to the royal commands, 
but the majority stood firm; and when, on the follow- 
ing morning, the Parliament was hurriedly convened 
to discuss the situation, the weaker members repudi- 
ated the promise which fear had extorted from them, 

164 



MADAME DU BARRY 165 

and the whole body reiterated its defiance of the 
King. 

Maupeou had long since determined to be content 
with no half-measures; if the members of the Par- 
liament declined to exercise the duties of judges, they 
should cease to be judges, and give place to those who 
would know better than to oppose the King's edicts. 
Moreover, quite apart from all considerations of the 
.royal authority, a reform in the judicial system was 
urgently needed, and Despotism masquerading in the 
garb of Progress was a spectacle which appealed irre- 
sistibly to his cynical mind. He, accordingly, resolved 
to strike a final and decisive blow without delay. 

That night, the unfortunate judges were again 
awakened, on this occasion by an officer of the 
Council, who notified to them a decree of that body 
declaring their offices confiscated, and forbidding 
them for the future to exercise any of their func- 
tions or even to assume the title of members of the 
Parliament. To this officer succeeded Musketeers, 
bearing lettres-de-cachetj which exiled them to dis- 
tant provinces.* 

These measures created the most unbounded amaze- 
ment and indignation, even among those who had 
hitherto had but little sympathy with the Parliament, 
for not only had an institution which had been power- 
ful in the days of Saint-Louis and Philippe le Bel 
been swept away at a single stroke, but an outrageous 
attack had been made on the sanctity of vested inter- 
ests. Judicial dignities could only be acquired by in- 
heritance or purchase; some had been handed down 
from father to son through many generations; others 
had repeatedly changed hands for very large sums of 
money, and all had until that moment been regarded 
as sound a form of investment as land or houses. It 
* Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. 153, et seq. 



1 66 MADAME DU BARRY 

is true that the dispossessed magistrates were sub- 
sequently permitted to demand compensation; but the 
price fixed was very far below the value of their 
offices, and the knowledge that the Government did not 
hesitate to invade the rights of property aroused a 
feeling of uneasiness throughout the entire commu- 
nity.' 

In Paris, the popular indignation assumed its usual 
form, and a storm of chansons, pamphlets, and epi- 
grams, some of them couched in the most threatening 
language, rained upon Maupeou." But, undeterred by 
the public clamour and the violent remonstrances of 
the provincial Parliaments,* the Chancellor steadily 
pursued the course he had marked out for himself. 
On January 23, the members of the Council of State 
were provisionally commissioned to render justice at 
the Palais, and were installed with great pomp, amid 
the hooting of the populace. A month later, an edict 
established six superior councils at Arras, Blois, Cha- 
lons, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyons, and Poitiers, all of 
which towns had hitherto been included within the 

^Mr. J. B. Perkins's "France under Louis XV.," ii. 271. 

'Here is an extract from a pamphlet cited in Les Pastes de 
Louis XV.: 

" Maupeou is the most abominable monster that hell has ever 
vomited forth to distress the kingdom, the most damnable hypo- 
crite, the most determined villain that has ever been seen on 
earth. The Jacques Clements, Ravaillacs and Damiens may yield 
him the first place in their parricidal gang. The Sicilian Vespers, 
the Saint-Bartholomew, the defeats of Poitiers, Azincourt, and 
Malplaquet were lucky days for the nation in comparison with 
that on which this traitor was born, for they only destroyed 
some Frenchmen, whereas this impious wretch would wipe out 
the very name. What good citizen, if any such are still left us, 
would not solicit the honour to load, charge, and fire the weapon 
which should revenge the nation and deliver it for ever from 
the villain who has ruined it? " 

* The provincial Parliaments met with substantially the same 
fate as the Parliament of Paris; the unruly members being de- 
prived of their offices and their places filled by men more amen- 
able to the royal will. 



MADAME DU BARRY 167 

jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, to the great 
loss and inconvenience of litigants residing therein, 
who had been compelled to carry their appeals to the 
capital. The members of these new courts were 
strictly forbidden to receive any term-fees, judges' 
fees, or other perquisites over and above their salaries. 
On April 9, the Cour des Aides was swept away, and 
its members and its jurisdiction divided between the 
new Parliament and the superior councils. Finally, 
on the 13th of the same month, a Bed of Justice was 
held in which were read three edicts : the first, abolish- 
ing the old Parliament; the second, abolishing the 
Cour des Aides ; the third, transforming the old Grand 
Council into the new Parliament. 

After the edicts had been read, Louis XV. rose and 
terminated the sitting with these words : " You have 
heard my will; I desire that you will conform to it. 
I order you to commence your functions on Monday; 
my Chancellor will install you. I forbid any delibera- 
tions contrary to my edicts and all representations in 
favour of my former Parliament, for I will never 
change." 

Madame du Barry assisted at this ceremony, " hid- 
den behind a gauze curtain." As she was leaving the 
Palais, she encountered the Due de Nivernais, who, 
with ten other peers, had given his opinion against the 
registration of the edicts.^ 

" I hope, Monsieur le Due," said she, " that you will 
cease to oppose the King's wishes, for, as you have 
heard his Majesty say, he will never change." 

''The Princes of the Blood (with the single exception of the 
Comte de la Marche), headed by the Due d'Orleans and the 
Prince de Conde, had refused to attend the bed of justice, and 
sent a vigorous protest to the King, " couched in harsh and bar- 
baric language." Louis seized the protest and threw it into the 
fire, and forbade the princes to appear in his presence or in that 
of the Dauphin and Dauphiness. 



1 68 MADAME DU BARRY 

"True, Madame," replied the gallant duke; "but 
when he said that he was looking at you." 

It has frequently been asserted that, but for the as- 
sistance he derived from the caquetage of Madame du 
Barry, Maupeou would never have succeeded in induc- 
ing Louis XV. to sanction the destruction of the Par- 
liaments. Historians like Michelet and Henri Martin 
have given the weight of their authority to this charge, 
which, however, appears to rest on no better founda- 
tion than an anecdote related by the Nouvelles a la 
main.^ Writing under date March 25, 1771, Bachau- 
mont says : 

" The Empress of Russia has carried off the picture- 
gallery of the Comte de Thiers, a distinguished ama- 
teur, who had a very fine collection. M. Marigny 
(Director-General of the Board of Works, an office 
which included the supervision of the art-collections 
of France) has had the mortification of seeing these 
treasures go to a foreign country, for lack of funds to 
purchase them for the King. Among the pictures 
was a full-length portrait of Charles L, King of Eng- 
land, by Van Dyck. This is the only one which has 
remained in France. The Comtesse du Barry, who 
displays more and more taste for the arts, gave orders 
for it to be bought. She paid 24,000 livres for it, and 
when she was reproved for having selected this picture 
among so many which would have been more suitable, 

^Nouvelles a la main was the name given in the seventeenth 
century to clandestinely printed gazettes, which contained news 
of the Court and the town, generally in a highly piquant form. 
They were prohibited by the Parliament of Paris in 1620, and in 
1666 and 1670 the penalty of whipping and the galleys was de- 
creed against the vendors. They still continued to be circulated 
however, and it was not until some years later that La Reynie, 
the Lieutenant of Police, contrived to suppress them. They re- 
appeared under the Regency, when Madame Doublet published 
a weekly journal, entitled Nouvelles a la main, which was con- 
tinued by Bachaumont, and, after his death, by Pidansat de 
Mairobert. 



MADAME DU BARRY 169 

pretended that she was recovering a family portrait. 
In fact, the Du Barrys claim to be related to the House 
of Stuart." 

On October 22, the Nouvelles, which was now edited 
by the ingenious Pidansat de Mairobert, Bachaumont 
having died in the preceding April, returns to the sub- 
ject of Charles I.'s portrait : 

" People are talking much of the full-length portrait 
of Charles I., purchased for 20,000 livres by Madame 
du Barry. This lady has placed it in her apartments, 
together with that of the King, and, it appears, not 
without design. It is asserted that she shows it to the 
King, whenever his Majesty, relapsing into his normal 
kindness of disposition, seems to weary of violence and 
inclines towards clemency. She tells him that perhaps 
his Parliament would have made some attempt similar 
to that of England, if the Chancellor had not foreseen 
their insane and criminal designs and checked them 
before they had reached the degree of baseness and 
wickedness required to put them into execution.^ 
However absurd and atrocious such an imputation 
may be, it reinflames the prince for the moment, and 
it is from the foot of this picture that proceed the 
destroying thunderbolts that smite the magistrates 
and pulverise them in the remotest corners of the 
realm. 

" One is well assured that a calumny so' atrocious 
and so deliberate cannot proceed from the tender and 
ingenuous heart of Madame la Comtesse du Barry, 
and that the alarms with which she inspires the King 
are instigated by advisers whose policy is as clever as it 
is infernal." 

' " Behold that unfortunate monarch," said she to him. " Your 
Parliament would perhaps have ended by treating you as he was 
treated by the Parliament of England, if you had not had a 
Minister to oppose their designs and set their menaces at de- 
fiance." — Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. 160. 



I70 MADAME DU BARRY 

" This anecdote, justified by events, is attested by 
courtiers whose testimony carries great weight." 

The portrait referred to by the Nouvelles is the 
beautiful painting, now in the Louvre, representing 
the King followed by a squire leading his horse, which 
the famous engraving of Le Strange has helped to 
popularise. Considerable doubt exists as to whether 
this portrait ever belonged to Baron de Thiers, but, 
contrary to the opinion expressed by Mr. R. B. Doug- 
las, in his " Life and Times of Madame du Barry," 
there is none whatever that it was at one time the 
property of the favourite. Here, however, is what M. 
Jules Guiffrey, the great French authority on Van 
Dyck and his works, has to say on the subject : 

" The Louvre Catalogue states that the portrait 
comes from the collection of Louis XV. and that it 
had belonged tO' Baron de Thiers, who, as is known, 
sold his fine collection bodily tO' the Empress of Russia. 
Here there is a twofold error. It is, to say the least, 
very doubtful if the portrait of Charles L ever formed 
part of Baron de Thiers's collection. It is also related 
that the picture figured at the beginning of the eight- 
eenth century in the collection of the Comtesse de Ver- 
rue, who gave it to the Marquis de Lassay. Neverthe- 
less, it is not mentioned in the catalogue of the 
countess's pictures, published for the first time by M. 
Charles Blanc in the Tresor de la Curiosife. The col- 
lection of the Marquis de Lassay fell partly, as is 
known to the Comte de la Quiche; in the latter's lot 
was Charles I. The collection of the Comte de la 
Guiche was sold by auction in 1770; but the famous 
picture found no purchasers, and the heirs withdrew it 
at 17,000 livres. It was, no doubt, in consequence of 
this fruitless effort to sell the picture that the Comtesse 
du Barry, in quest of distinguished ancestors, to atone 
for the lowliness of her extraction, made direct offers 



MADAME DU BARRY 171 

to the owners. A bargain was struck, and the favourite 
became the possessor of the picture. She bought it for 
herself, and not for the King, as has often been as- 
serted. Only at the commencement of the succeeding 
reign did she consent to surrender it and sell it to 
King Louis XVI., as will be gathered from the cor- 
respondence which we shall now cite. 

" After the death of Louis XV., the Comtesse du 
Barry, pressed by her numerous creditors, was reduced 
to parting with a portion of the riches of every kind 
which royal liberality had showered upon her. The 
Charles I. included in this enforced liquidation was 
offered to M. d'Angiviller, Director-General of the 
Board of Works. The architect Le Doux, who had 
done much work for Madame du Barry, undertook the 
negotiations. We have not been able to find his letter, 
but the three following notes render that document un- 
necessary and all comment superfluous : 

" 'Letter of M. d'Angiviller to M. Le Doux. 

" ' I have received, Monsieur, the letter wherein you 
acquaint me with Madame du Barry's fixed intention 
to sell the portrait of Charles L and of the offer which 
has been made to her. I will not let the opportunity 
of acquiring this valuable work escape. I therefore 
secure it on behalf of the King for the price of 24,000 
livres (1000 louis) which has been offered for It, and 
this sum will be paid down on delivery of the picture. 

" ' I am, Monsieur, &c.' "' 

The remaining two letters mentioned by M. Guiff- 

rey merely refer to arrangements for the removal of 

the picture from Louveciennes and the payment of 

the purchase-money. 

*M. Guiffrey's Antoine Van Dyck, sa vie et son ceuvre (Paris, 
1882), p. 180 et seq. 



172 MADAME DU BARRY 

Thus it will be seen that the portrait of Charles I. 
did belong to Madame du Barry, and that she sold it 
to Louis XVI. for the exact sum which the Nouvelles 
state that she had paid for it. What amount of truth 
there was in the story of the use the lady made of her 
purchase it is very difficult to say. As Sheridan re- 
marked of Dundas, the writers of the Nouvelles were 
no doubt largely indebted to their imagination for their 
facts; but, on the other hand, they were frequently 
well-informed, and hardly deserve the scorn which 
Madame du Barry's two champions, M. Vatel and 
Mr. Douglas, so unsparingly mete out to them. These 
writers ridicule the story on the ground that the sale of 
the Thiers collection took place at a later date than 
that stated by the Nouvelles, in fact some months 
after the old Parliament of Paris had been sent about 
its business, so that the portrait of Charles I.' could 
not have been in Madame du Barry's possession early 
enough to be used as a bogey to frighten the King. 
But, from the passage from M. Guiffrey's work which 
we have just cited, it would appear that the portrait 
was acquired, not at the sale of Baron de Thiers's 
pictures in the autumn of 1771, but from the heirs of 
the Comte de la Guiche some time in 1770, that is to 
say, before the suppression of the Parliament, which 
entirely refutes their arguments and strengthens the 
case against the favourite. 

However, if for lack of trustworthy evidence, 
Madame du Barry must be acquitted of the Machiavel- 
ian conduct attributed to her, for we should hesitate 
to condemn any one on the testimony of Bachaumont 
and his confreres, though, as we have observed, they 
were not nearly so black as M. Vatel and Mr. Douglas 
appear to imagine, she was unquestionably, in some 

*Van Dyck valued this picture at £200, but was persuaded to 
reduce his charge to half that amount. 



MADAME DU BARRY 173 

degree, responsible for the quashing of the proceedings 
against d'Aiguillon, and cannot, therefore, be held al- 
together blameless for the later developments of the 
quarrel between the King and the magistracy. 

While Maupeou was waging war on the Parlia- 
ments, d'Aiguillon was engaged in the congenial task 
of inciting Madame du Barry to persecute the friends 
of Choiseul. Jarente, Bishop of Orleans, who had 
persuaded Madame Adelaide to intercede with the 
King for the recall of Choiseul, was deprived of the 
distribution of benefices; d'Usson was recalled from 
Stockholm; the appointment of the Baron de Breteuil 
as Ambassador at the Austrian Court was revoked, 
just as he was on the point of starting for Vienna; 
Rulhiere was deprived of his pension and his place in 
the Foreign Office; the unfortunate Prince de Beau- 
vau, whose imperious wife had taken so prominent a 
part in the attacks upon the favourite, lost his post of 
Governor of Languedoc, though he was over a million 
livres in debt; and lettres-de-cachet were suspended 
over the heads of the Archbishop of Toulouse, Male- 
sherbes, the Due de Duras, and even Sartine, the 
Lieutenant of Police. D'Aiguillon and the favourite 
dealt blows on every side, and as they could not strike 
their feminine adversaries directly, they struck at 
them through their husbands, their lovers, or their 
brothers. 

Desolation and alarm reigned in the salons whence 
had proceeded the quips and gibes and epigrams 
against Madame du Barry and her reputed lover, 
for no one knew upon whom the next blow might 

fall. 

" The lady is more supreme than her predecessor or 
even Cardinal de Fleury," wrote Madame du Deffand 
to Horace Walpole; ''she is exasperated to the last 



174 MADAME DU BARRY 

degree. We are passing through a terrible time here ; 
it is impossible to foresee where it will end."^° 

But great as was the influence of Madame du Barry 
over her royal adorer, she was for some months unable 
to overcome the reluctance of the King to promote 
d'Aiguillon to the Foreign Office, which was the goal 
of that intriguing nobleman's ambition. Louis had 
always disliked d'Aiguillon — he had never been able 
to pardon him for having been, for a time, his success- 
ful rival in the affections of Madame de Chateauroux 
— and to make a Foreign Minister of a man who was 
but yesterday an accused person was to defy public 
opinion to an extent from which a far bolder monarch 
than himself might well recoil. Moreover, the duke's 
pretensions encountered serious obstacles in the oppo- 
sition of the Prince de Conde, who, until he fell into 
disgrace on account of his sympathy with the Parlia- 
ment, exercised considerable influence, and at the be- 
ginning of January succeeded in thrusting one of his 
proteges, the Marquis de Monteynard, into the Min- 
istry of War ; and from a rival candidate, whose quali- 
fications for the post were far superior to his own. 

This was the Comte de Broglie, surnamed '' the little 
intriguer," who had formerly been French Ambassador 
at Warsaw, and, in 1767, had succeeded Tercier as 
conductor of the secret diplomatic correspondence of 
Louis XV. Broglie had nothing to aid him on the 
side of Conde, who had a long-standing grievance 
against the count's elder brother, the Marechal de 
Broglie, dating back to the time of the Seven Years' 
War :" but he had public opinion on his side, especially 

*** Letter of March 26, 1771. 

" This resentment was so bitter that it survived the fall of the 
Monarchy, and twenty years later, during the emigration, the 
prince and the old marshal, commanding the same troops and 
involved in the same disasters, could hardly bring themselves 



MADAME DU BARRY 175 

among the representatives of foreign Courts, and had 
the support of the Marechale de Mirepoix and Mad- 
emoiselle '' Chon " du Barry, the sister-in-law of the 
favourite. 

For five months the post of Minister for Foreign 
Affairs remained vacant; while clouds were gathering 
upon the horizon, the French agents abroad and the 
Ambassadors in Paris were complaining every day of 
the absolute ignorance in which they were left, and 
foreign princes waited about at Versailles until a suc- 
cessor to Choiseul should be appointed/' D'Aiguillon 
intrigued against Broglie, Broglie intrigued against 
d'Aiguillon," and Conde intrigued against both. 
Madame du Barry supported her protege; Montey- 
nard, the new Minister for War, Maupeou, and Terray 

to speak to one another. — The Due de Broglie's Le Secret du 
Roi, ii. 339- 
''Ibid. 352. 

^'Broglie bombarded Loais XV. with letters, in which he car- 
ried flattery and serviHty to their utmost limits. In one written 
on January 14, 1771, he says: " The knowledge that, under the 
sole direction of your Majesty, the King of Spain has been com- 
pelled to accept the conditions imposed by England has occa- 
sioned the greatest joy. The value of this most fortunate peace 
is infinitely augmented in the 'eyes of your subjects by the knowl- 
edge that they owe it to your paternal care, and everybody ex- 
claims with enthusiasm and regret, 'Why does not the King do 
everything and decide upon everything, himself? nothing would 
then be wanting to our happiness and his glory.'" And this at 
a time when the most distinguished persons in France were 
flocking to Chanteloup, and "Le Bien Aime de I' Almanack" was 
being sung at every street corner ! 

In another letter, the count informs the King that " he should 
indeed be flattered if Madame du Barry entertained a sufficiently 
good opinion of him to lead her to desire that the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs should be conferred upon him." — Le Secret du 
Roi, ii. 343, 352. 

The servility of Broglie, however, must not blind us to the 
fact that he was by far the most suitable candidate for the post 
to which he aspired. He was the first French statesman to fore- 
see the designs of the Eastern Powers upon Poland, and had 
he been appomted to the Foreign Office, would have undoubtedly 
striven his utmost to checkmate them. 



176 MADAME DU BARRY 

sided with Conde; while the Marechale de Mirepoix 
and Mademoiselle " Chon " espoused the cause of the 
diplomatist, who also had the assistance of a certain 
fascinating Chevalier de Jaucourt, called by his friends 
*'*' Clair-de-lune," owing to his talent for relating ghost- 
stories, who endeavoured to frustrate d'Aiguillon's 
ambitions by supplanting him in the affections of the 
favourite. 

" It is almost impossible that your Majesty should 
form a correct idea of the horrible confusion which 
reigns here," wrote Mercy to Maria Theresa. ^' The 
throne is disgraced by the extensive and indecent in- 
fluence of the favourite and her partisans. The nation 
shows its feeling by seditious remarks and disloyal 
pamphlets, in which the person of the sovereign is 
not spared.''* Versailles is the abode of treachery, 
spite, and hatred ; everything is done through motives 
of personal interest, and all honourable feeling dis- 
carded."^ 

At length, in June, Conde having in the meantime 
fallen into disgrace, Louis XV. grew weary of the im- 
portunities of his mistress, and allowed a reluctant 
consent to be wrung from him that the Foreign Office 
should be given to d^Aiguillon, to the indignation of 
Broglie, the disgust of the whole nation, and the 
amazement of Europe.^^ 

The nomination of her protege was celebrated by 

**One morning, a placard bearing the following words was 
found affixed to the King's statue, by Bouchardon, in the Place 
Louis XV. : " By order of the Mint. A Louis badly struck must 
be struck again." This, of course, referred to the attempted 
assassination of the King by Damiens, on January 5, 1757, and 
was nothing less than a thinly veiled incitement to regicide. 

"Letter of April 16, 1771. 

^^The Marine, which had likewise been a bone of contention, 
had been filled in the previous April by the appointment of 
Boynes, a creature of d'Aiguillon. Until then its duties had been 
discharged by Terray. 



MADAME DU BARRY 177 

'\ 

Madame du Barry, in the following September, by a 
g-rand dinner at Louveciennes, at which were present 
the wife of the new Minister, the dowager Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon — "" la grosse duchesse/' as Madame du 
Deffand styles her — the Marechale de Mirepoix, the 
Princesse de Montmorency, the Comtesse de Valen- 
tinois, the Chancellor and all the Ministers of State, 
and the whole of the Corps Diplomatique, with the 
exception of the Ambassadors of Spain and Naples." 
These Ministers, acting presumably on instructions 
from their Courts, had declined to visit the favourite, 
and Fuentes, the Spanish Ambassador, went so far as 
to refuse invitations to functions at which the lady 
was to be present. The representative of Great 
Britain, on the other hand, showed most gratifying 
complacence, and, in February 1772, gave a dinner- 
party exclusively to the d'Aiguillon and Du Barry 
faction. 

At the Salon of 1771 Madame du Barry was again 
in evidence. Two important works were consecrated 
to the favourite — one, a bust in terra-cotta, by Pajou; 
the other, a full-length portrait, by Drouais, in which 
the lady was represented as one of the Muses."^ 

The bust in terra-cotta by Pajou, the marble repro- 
duction of which, exhibited at the Salon of 1773, and 
now in the Louvre, is by many considered that 
sculptor's chef-d'ceuvre^ was generally admired and 

" Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole, September^ 25, 1771. 

^* Here is a contemporary description of the portrait : " The 
Comtesse du Barry is painted as a Muse. She is seated, and is 
partly veiled by light and transparent draperies, which are gath- 
ered up below the left breast, leaving the legs uncovered to the 
knees, and revealing the outline of the rest of her figure. In 
her right hand she holds a harp and a crown of flowers ; in the 
left she carries other flowers. The foreground of the picture is 
filled by books, paint-brushes, and various attributes of the 
arts." — Cited by M. Vatel in Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. B)Z> 



178 MADAME DU BARRY 

warmly praised by the Mercure. But the picture was 
not so fortunate, as the devout, " who only care to 
see women veiled from head to foot," were shocked 
at the mythological nudity of the figure ; and Madame 
du Barry, hearing of this, ordered it to be at once re- 
moved from the walls of the Salon. 

In February 1771, the Prince Royal of Sweden, the 
future Gustavus III., arrived in Paris, accompanied 
by his younger brother, Frederick. The ostensible 
object of his visit was to improve his mind by a course 
of foreign travel, and he took up his quarters at the 
Swedish Legation, Rue de Grenelle Saint-Germain, 
under the name of the Graf von Gothland. But, in 
point of fact, he had been sent by his mother, Queen 
Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great, on the invitation 
of Choiseul, tO' solicit French assistance in the difficult 
enterprise which was to end in his coup d'Etat of 
August 19, 1772. 

When Choiseul's invitation was sent the duke was, 
of course, still in office; but the young prince reached 
Paris to find his hoped-for ally exiled and his enemies 
wrangling over his departments; and was, in con- 
sequence, placed in a somewhat embarrassing position. 
Acting, however, on the advice of Creutz," the saga- 
cious and popular Swedish Ambassador, he resolved to 
pay court to all parties, and won golden opinions from 
all. One day, he sent his compliments to Chanteloup 
through Madame du Deffand, and the next he supped 
at Rueil with the d'Aiguillons, Richelieu, and Mau- 
peou. On another, he showed himself in the salon of 
the Comtesse d'Egmont^" in the Rue Louis-le-Grand, 

^^Gustaf Philip Creutz (1729-1785), the most celebrated 
Swedish poet of the eighteenth century, author of the beautiful 
idyll Atis och Camilla, and the exquisite pastoral Daphne. 

^° Sophie Jeanne Armande Elisabeth S'eptimainie de Vignerod 
du Plessis de Richelieu, daughter of the notorious Due de Riche- 



MADAME DU BARRY 179 

knd on a fourth went to the Palais-Bourbon to visit 
i± Prince de Conde. Nor did he neglect tO' render 
homage tO' the reigning sultana, whose heart he quite 
won by presenting a rich collar, some writers say of 
gold, others of diamonds, to her favourite lapdog. 
^' On raconte ici (Vienna) des bassesses du Roi de 
Suede'' vis-d-vis cette femme/' writes Maria Theresa. 
'' Quelle honte! "" 

On November 13, Madame du Deffand informs her 
friend at Strawberry Hill: ''The Idol (Madame du 
Barry) is at the height of her glory; she has written to 
the King of Sweden; her letter did not reach the 
King; but, as it was announced to him, he has fore- 
stalled her and written to her des choses charmantes 
et admirablesf 

At this time a rumour was afloat that " the Idol " 
had sent, or was about to send, her portrait to Gus- 
tavus, and poor Madame d'Egmont, who had promised 
hers to the monarch, was in despair and addressed the 
most pathetic letters to Stockholm. 

'' Place me then in a position to send you my por- 
trait," she writes. " I cannot do so without a positive 

lieu, by his second marriage with EHsabeth Sophie de Lorraine, 
and wife of Casimir, Marquis de PignatelH, Due de Bisaccia, 
Comte d'Egmont. At her husband's hotel, and also at that of 
her father, she kept a brilliant salon, which was frequented by- 
diplomatists, like Mercy, Lord Stormont, Creutz, Gleichen, and 
Fuentes; painters and sculptors, like Roslin, Le Moyn'e, Chardin, 
and Hall; and men of letters, like Jean Jacques Rousseau and 
Ruhliere. Her salon was at this time a centre of resistance to 
Maupeou, whose reforms Madame d'Egmont and her friend, the 
Comtesse de Brionne, opposed with great energy. Brought into 
connection with Gustavus IH. by Creutz, the countess encour- 
aged and aided him in his efforts to obtain the support of 
France for the projects he m'editated in Sweden. An affection 
'Hres vive et qui parait avoir etc pure," sprung up between the 
two, and they corresponded regularly until the lady's untimely 
death in October 1773. 

^^ Gustavus had received the news of the death of his father 
and his succession to the throne of Sweden on March i. 

^^ Letter to Mercy-Argenteau, April i, 1771. 



i8o MADAME DU BARRY 

assurance that you have not nor will have that of 
Madame du Barry." She returns to the charge bj 
another letter : " Sire, it is said that you have askeb 
for the portrait of Madame du Barry ; they go even so 
far as to assert that you have written to her. I have 
denied it at all costs, but it has been persisted in in so 
positive a manner that I implore you to authorise me 
to contradict it. No, it cannot be." Finally, in a 
third letter, she says : " I ask again for an answer 
concerning the portrait of Madame du Barry. Deign 
then to give me your word of honour that you neither 
have nor ever intend to have it.'"^ 

At the beginning of January 1772, a difficulty arose 
about the payment of the subsidies which had been 
promised by France to Gustavus to assist him in the 
execution of the projects he was meditating in 
Sweden, d'Aiguillon declaring that it was absolutely 
impossible to obtain the money. The poet-ambassador 
in the Rue Grenelle Saint-Germain, however, knew his 
Versailles as intimately as did Mercy himself, and 
forthwith wrote to his master : 

" In this terrible situation, here are the expedients 
that I propose to your Majesty: (i) To write a very 
touching letter to the King, a very flattering one to 
Madame du Barry, and one full of confidence and 
friendship to the Due d'Aiguillon. This is of the most 
vital importance . . . .'* 

Gustavus lost not a moment in despatching the 
touching, flattering, and friendly epistles to their re- 
spective destinations, and on the i6th of the same 
month the delighted Creutz sends a courier to announce 
that his Majesty's letters have produced the desired 
effect: "The lady who enjoys the confidence of the 
King takes the most lively interest in all that concerns 
the King of Sweden. She speaks to me continually, 
^ Geffrey's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 242. 



MADAME DU BARRY i8i 

and charges me to convey her good wishes to your 
Majesty."^* 

And so it came about that, through the intercession 
of the flattered favourite, the empty French Treasury 
was compelled to disgorge the needed subsidies, and 
the King of Sweden enabled to pave the way for the 
revolution which was to bring his haughty nobility into 
subjection to the Crown. 

The rumour of the previous autumn that Madame 
du Barry intended to bestow her portrait on Gustavus 
would appear to have been well grounded, for shortly 
after the Baron de Li even had brought to Versailles 
the official announcement of the coup d'Etat of August 
19, 1772, on which occasion the favourite had joined 
her felicitations to those of Louis XV., we find Creutz 
writing to his sovereign as follows: 

" Madame du Barry was wishful to send to your 
Majesty her bust (by Pajou) and the portrait of her- 
self by Greuze;'^ but this would oblige your Majesty 
to send her your portrait and to write to her; and I, 
accordingly, allowed the matter to drop. It is, how- 
ever, very essentiar to spare the feelings of Madame 
du Barry, and I implore your Majesty to place me 
in a position to say some flattering things to her. I am 
high in her favour, but I am embarrassed what an- 
swer to make to her should she come again to propose 
to me to send her portrait. The King is extremely 
sensitive in regard to everything which concerns her, 
and he neither pardons nor forgets the slightest thing 
that may wound her.' 



Jj26 



^* Geffrey's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 148. 

^^This portrait figures among the obj'ects chosen by the com- 
mission of arts at Louveciennes, after the execution of the 
countess in 1793. It is described in the catalogue as "an un- 
finished picture representing the Dubarry as a Bacchante." — E. 
and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 75, note. 

^® Geffroy's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 212. 



1 82 MADAME DU BARRY 

Gustavus replied very graciously to Madame du 
Barry's felicitations," but he did not mention the por- 
trait, and nothing more was heard about it. Almost 
at the same time, he gave to Madame d'Egmont the 
solemn promise that she had demanded that he would 
never accept any portrait of the favourite; and, in 
August 1773, two months before her untimely death, 
that lady sent him a charming miniature of herself 
by the Swedish painter Hall, which is now in the 
National Museum in Stockholm/^ 

Never had favourite worked for the fall of a Min- 
ister with less personal animosity than Madame du 
Barry for that of Choiseul. But for the continual 
promptings of the ignoble triumvirate whose tool she 
had had the misfortune to become, and particularly of 
d'Aiguillon, who had striven to inspire her with some- 
thing of his own hatred of Choiseul, it is doubtful 
whether she would ever have embarked upon the 
struggle with the Minister, much less have carried it 
through to the bitter end. What resentment she had 
entertained for her adversary disappeared with his de- 
parture from the Court, and gave place to a feeling 
of sympathy and regret, of which an incident which 
occurred twelve months later affords us a striking 
proof. 

When he had received the King's orders to retire 
to Chanteloup, Choiseul had been deprived of all his 

^^ Here is the King's letter : 

" The interest that you take in my success renders it the more 
agreeable to me. Baron de Lieven has given me a faithful ac- 
count of the good will that you have shown for me, and I thank 
you for it sincerely. I reckon with confidence on the sentiments 
that you have always manifested for me, and I do not doubt 
that I shall often have occasion to speak to you of the gratitude 
with which I am very truly, Madame la comtesse du Barry. . . ." 

^^The Comtesse d'Armaille's La Comtesse d'Egmont d'apres 
les lettres inedites a Gustave III., p. 275. 



MADAME DU BARRY 183 

offices, with one exception, which, from a pecuniary 
point of view, was the most important. This was the 
post of Colonel-General of the Swiss troops in the 
French service, carrying with it a salary of 100,000 
livres. 

An impression appears to have prevailed that the 
office in question once conferred could not be taken 
away, and Louis XV., in bestowing it upon the duke 
in 1762, had assured him that he should hold it for 
Hfe. 

Moreover, the King, at the instance of Carlos 
III., had given his word that no further steps should 
be taken against the fallen Minister ; and as the months 
went by and the salary continued to be paid to him, 
Choiseul became convinced that he would be allowed 
to retain his command. His astonishment and indie- 
nation, therefore, may be imagined when, on the night 
of December 6, 1771, a courier from the Court ar- 
rived at Chanteloup, bearing a letter from d'Aiguillon 
to Choiseul's friend, the Due de Chatelet,'' who was 
on a visit there, in which the duke was requested to in- 
form his host that the King, having discovered that the 
post of Colonel-General of the Swiss was one which 
could only be held during his good pleasure, had de- 
cided that the welfare of his service would not permit 
him to leave it any longer in the hands of M. de 
Choiseul, who must, accordingly, send in his resigna- 
tion forthwith. His Majesty would then be willing 
to consider the question of compensation, although he 
did not recognise that M. de Choiseul had any claim 
to be indemnified. The letter concluded with an in- 
timation that the King's decision was irrevocable, and 

^^ Louis Marie Frangois du Chatelet d'Harancourt, son of Vol- 
taire's " divine Emilie," and believed to be " one of the works of 
the philosopher." He had been French Ambassador at St, 
James's and Vienna, and was Colonel of the Regiment du Roi. 



i84 MADAME DU BARRY 

the words, ''Ce que dessus est ma fagon de vouloir/^ 
in Louis' own hand.^° 

Du Chatelet duly communicated the contents of this 
very unwelcome epistle to Choiseul, who thereupon 
addressed to the King, not the resignation demanded, 
but a long letter, wherein, after protesting against the 
manner in which he was being treated, he demanded as 
compensation for the loss of his post (i) liberty to 
visit any part of France, Paris and the Court excepted ; 
(2) settlement of all the debts he had contracted while 
in office, including three or four million livres which 
he had borrowed from his wife, and two million due 
to creditors;'^ (3) a revenue of 40,000 livres on the 
forest of Haguenau, of which he had been grand hailli, 
and forest rights worth about 800,000 livres; (4) a 
pension of 50,000 livres, with reversion to the duchess. 

These modest demands were carried to Versailles 
by Du Chatelet, who was charged to deliver the letter 
into his Majesty's own hand, and not to intercede in 
his favour with either Ministers or mistress, " whose 
marks of interest would humiliate him." 

However, Du Chatelet took upon himself to ignore 
these instructions and went to d'Aiguillon, whom he 
had known since boyhood. His reception in this 
quarter was far from encouraging. The Minister ap- 
peared surprised and " shocked " at the demands of 
M. de Choiseul, as well he might be, and though he 

^"M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de 
Choiseul, p. 149. Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole, Jan- 
uary 6, 1772. 

®^A few days after his dismissal from office, Choiseul had 
asked the King for thre'e million livres to pay his debts. Louis 
assented and signed an order on the Treasury for that amount, 
but omitted to add the words, "Bon pour trois ^ millions/' an 
omission which the Minister did not discover until some hours 
later. He had intended to ask the King to rectify the error at 
the next meeting of the Council, but, unfortunately for him, that 
meeting happened to be the one in which the King decided on 
his disgrace. 



MADAME DU BARRY 185 

promised to procure an audience of the King for Du 
Chatelet, did so with such very bad grace that his 
visitor had a shrewd suspicion that it was to his machi- 
nations that Choiseul owed the loss of his post, which, 
indeed, was the case,^"" and that he would use his in- 
fluence to hinder Louis from granting the compensa- 
tion asked for. 

Much perturbed by the turn that events were taking, 
Du Chatelet decided tO' have recourse to Madame du 
Barry, and, having obtained an interview with the 
lady, " exposed to her with warmth the enormity of 
the injustice done tO' M. de Choiseul and the harshness 
and bad faith of his enemies." 

The favourite received him very kindly, informed 
him that as " there was not a crown in the Treasury '"^ 
there might be some difficulty in complying with M. 
de Choiseul's demands, and that the question of liberty 
to leave Chant eloup had better not be raised for the 
present, but readily promised to do all in her power 
to further his efforts on his friend's behalf. " I was 
satisfied with her replies," writes Du Chatelet to 
Choiseul. *' She told me that she entertained no' ill- 
feeling towards you; that she would be charmed to 
avail herself of the present occasion tO' prove it; that 
what had happened in the past was entirely your fault ; 
that, at the beginning, she had done everything she 
could to prevent it ; but that you must feel that matters 
could not be again on the same footing as they once 
were, not as regarded herself, for she was a mere no- 

®^ D'Aiguillon appears to have instigated the Dauphin's brother, 
the Comte de Provence, to ask for Choisfeul's post. The count, 
however, did not obtain it, as the Dauphin was so angry when 
he heard what Provence had done that he protested against his 
appointment; and the command of the Swiss was, in conse- 
quence, given to the youngest of the three brothers, the Comte 
d'Artois, a boy of sixteen. 

*^ Belleval tells us that such was the penury of the Treasury 
at this period that the pay of the troops was in arrears. 



i86 MADAME DU BARRY 

body, but in regard to the King, whom you continually 
offended in the object of his affections." 

Du Chatelet obtained the desired audience of the 
King, but it availed him little. 

" Is that the resignation that you have there ? " 
asked Louis, perceiving the letter in the duke's 
hand. 

" No, Sire, but the proposals that M. de Choiseul 
has the honour to make to your Majesty." 

"I do not wish to hear his proposals — I want his 
resignation," rejoined the King. And he declined tO' 
receive the letter, and referred Du Chatelet back to 
d'Aiguillon." 

Here, as may be supposed, he received scant con- 
solation, so he despatched a courier to Chanteloup 
with a letter conjuring Choiseul " in the name of God 
to yield to force," lest worse evils should befall him, 
after which he rushed off to Madame du Barry, whom 
he informed that he was in despair, that his friend's 
interests were his own, that his honour was compro- 
mised, and so forth. 

Madame du Barry appeared " touched " and " even 
terrified " by his agitation, declared that she was sin- 
cere in her desire to help him, and said that, although 
she knew nothing about finance, she would endeavour 
to obtain for Choiseul a pension of 100,000 livres. 
" She concluded," writes Du Chatelet to Choiseul, 
" by assuring me that d'Aiguillon had no power over 
her ; that she gave audience to all who came to her, and 
did as she wished. She promised to let me know on 
the morrow how she had succeeded." 

Next day, the favourite sought out the King, and 
remained closeted with him for two hours and a half, 
pleading the cause of the man who had persecuted her 
SO' cruelly. " So long an interview augured well for 

'* Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole, January 6, 1772. 



MADAME DU BARRY 187 



me," writes Du Chatelet, '' and I flattered myself some- 
what on my success.'"^ 

The King was very angry with Madame du Barry 
for interfering, as was d'Aiguillon also; but at the 
next meeting of the Council the matter was discussed, 
and Du Chatelet informed that his Majesty was will- 
ing tO' accord Choiseul a pension of 50,000 livres, with 
reversion to the duchess, and 200,000 livres in cash. 

In the meantime, Choiseul had sent in an uncon- 
ditional resignation of his post, a judicious step, which 
so delighted poor Du Chatelet, who was becoming 
quite ill with anxiety, that, *' in a transport of joy, he 
twice kissed the courier who brought the letter." 
However, if we are to believe Besenval, who was then 
staying at Chanteloup, the good effect produced by 
the resignation must have been largely discounted by a 
letter which Choiseul sent through the post, '' in- 
tended to be brought to the notice of the King and 
calculated to exasperate him." 

In great alarm, Du Chatelet followed the Court to 
Choisy to entreat Madame du Barry to continue her 
exertions on his friend's behalf, and found her with 
the King and d'Aiguillon in the salon. After listening 
to what he had to say, she turned to d'Aiguillon and 
said, " It must be so." Then she engaged the King 
and Minister in conversation, with the result that, as 
the former took his place at the card-table, he ex- 
claimed, " A pension of 60,000 livres and 100,000 
ecus (300,000 livres) in cash."'° 

And so, thanks to the efforts of the faithful Du 
Chatelet and the good offices of the kind-hearted 
favourite — who certainly on this occasion gave an ex- 
ample of Christian charity which Mesdames and some 

^ Memoir es de M. le Due de Choiseul, ecrits par lui-meme, ii. i, 
et seq. 

^^ Memoires du Baron de Besewval, i. 290. 



i88 MADAME DU BARRY 

of their devout friends would have done well to imi- 
tate — Choiseul received very handsome compensation 
for the loss of his command, and was enabled to pay 
his bread bill, though apparently not much besides, as 
when he died, on May 8, 1785, he was several million 
livres in debt. 

It would be pleasing- could we record that Madame 
du Barry's services met with some recognition from 
her former adversary. Such, unfortunately, was very 
far from being the case. Not only did she never re- 
ceive a single word of thanks, but in the duke's un- 
published Memoirs we find her described more than 
once by an exceedingly unpleasant term; and we can- 
not, therefore, subscribe to the opinion of Choiseul's 
enthusiastic biographer, M. Maugras, that it would 
have been , impossible for any one to have shown in 
misfortune '' une dme plus forte et plus eleveef'^^ 

^' La disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de Choiseul, p. 168. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE position of Madame du Barry after the dis- 
grace of Choiseul recalls that of Madame de 
Pompadour after the dismissal of her impla- 
cable enemy, the Comte d'Argenson, in February 1757. 
So long as the two Ministers in question retained 
their credit, neither lady could feel absolutely secure; 
the moment they had contrived their ruin, all restraints 
were removed, all fears banished, and they began to 
reign in real earnest. 

But there the comparison ends. " The life, the 
whole life, of Madame de Pompadour belongs to 
history. It is a life of affairs, of intrigues, of nego- 
tiations, the maintenance of a political role, a public 
exercise of power, a commerce at all hours with Min- 
isters, with Secretaries of State, with men of the 
sword, with men of money, with men of the robe, a 
control of the interests of the nation, and of the will 
of the King, an influence on the destinies of France 
and of Europe.'" 

Madame du Barry, as we have observed elsewhere, 
cared for none of these things.^ Her adversary, 
Choiseul, overthrown, her protege, d'Aiguillon, pro- 
moted, she hastened to resign the uncongenial part 
which circumstances had, for a few months, forced 
her to play, and became again merely '' la mieux entre- 
tenue du royaume/' 

* E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 122. 

^ She did, however, out of curiosity, attend one meeting of the 
Council, at which she sat upon the arm of the King's chair and 
played many " petites singeries enfantines." 

189 



I90 MADAME DU BARRY 

Nevertheless, she did not fail to appreciate the 
victory she had won, the sense of increased security, 
the knowledge that no longer need she be on her guard 
lest some trifling indiscretion should be seized upon 
and converted by a powerful and unscrupulous foe 
into a formidable weapon against her; and, after her 
own fashion, she enjoyed its fruits as fully as ever had 
Madame de Pompadour. For the first two years of her 
reign there had been some boundo to her extravagance ; 
now there were none, even as there seemed no limits to 
the infatuation of the old King and the shameful com- 
plaisance of the Comptroller-General, who not only 
persuaded Louis XV. to double her monthly pension 
of 30,000 llvres, but instructed Beau j on, the banker 
of the Court, that the drafts of Madame du Barry were 
to be accepted as " orders of the King," with the re- 
sult that in four years the lady drew upon the Treas- 
ury for no less a sum than 6,427,803 livres !^ 

And so the coffers of the State became the cash-box 
of the favourite, and the money wrung from the 
pockets of the luckless taxpayers by the adventurous 
Terray was poured out in a ceaseless flood on a host of 
modistes and milliners, goldsmiths and jewellers, 
furniture dealers and bric-a-brac merchants; on silks 
and laces, on pendants, and earrings, and bracelets, on 
superb toilette-sets* and costly porcelain, and, what is 
perhaps less reprehensible, on pictures and statuary, 

^In addition to all this, on the death of the Comte de Cler- 
mont, in 1772, she was accorded one-third of his pension of 
300,000 livres, and she is also believed to have received immense 
sums from the sale of monopolies, ojffices, commissions in the 
army and so forth. 

* Jacques Roettiers, the famous goldsmith, received orders from 
the King for a "toilette tout en or'' for Madame du Barry, but 
the cost prevented its completion. The accounts sent in by Roet- 
tiers pere et fils to the favourite were as follows: January 1770, 
34,795 livres; August 1771, 156,028 livres; May 1772, 56,657 livres; 
November 1773, 93,606 livres. 



MADAME DU BARRY 191 

and even books — books gorgeously bound in red 
morocco and stamped with the Du Barry arms and 
device. Her toilettes and jewels and equipages were 
the admiration and despair of all the ladies of the 
Court. Pagelle, the renowned modiste of the Trois 
Gallants in the Rue Saint-Honore, provided her with 
'' un grand habit de satin blanc chine en argent, hrode 
en paUlons verts et roses,'' &c., &c. — the full description 
of the garment would occupy the better part of a page 
— at a cost of 10,500 livres; Vanot, of the Rue Saint- 
Denis, with '' une tres-belle toilette de point d'Argentan 
et son surtout/' and '^ une parure de deshabille/' which 
cost respectively 9000, and 7000 livres; while gowns 
at 2000, 3000 and 4000 livres figure in her accounts 
with almost monotonous regularity. She had a parure 
of diamonds valued at 450,000 livres, a dinner-service 
of Sevres porcelain for which she paid 21,438 livres, 
and a magnificent vis-d-vis, the panels of which were 
decorated with her arms and "the famous battle-cry, 
' Boutes-en-az/ant/ " encircled by doves, pierced hearts, 
quivers, torches — " in short, all the attributes of the 
god of Paphos." This resplendent equipage, which 
was the gift of the grateful d'Aiguillon, was reported 
to have cost 52,000 livres. 

The apartments of the favourite at Versailles formed 
a series of boudoirs, each of which seemed to those 
who entered for the first time more elegant than an- 
other. The chimney-piece in the salon was adorned 
with a magnificent clock, " around which a world of 
porcelain figures disported themselves." In the same 
room were two commodes of priceless lacquer, one re- 
lieved by figures in gold, the other decorated with fine 
porcelain plaques, which, we are told, had not their 
equals in Europe. From the ceiling hung a lustre of 
rock-crystal, which had cost 16,000 livres, and in a 
corner stood a beautiful piano, the work of the famous 



192 MADAME DU BARRY 

Clicot, the case of which was of rosewood, exquisitely 
inlaid and lavishly gilded. The cabinet contained a 
writing-table plated with porcelain, and an inkstand 
which was a masterpiece of the goldsmith's art ; while 
in the bedroom was a wonderful clock, which rep- 
resented "the Three Graces supporting the vase of 
Time," and Love indicating the hour with his arrow. 
"The most exquisite objects of art, marvels of up- 
holstery, bronzes, marbles, statuettes, abounded in this 
asylum of voluptuous pleasure. It was the last word 
of luxury."^ 

A whole regiment of servants was employed to do 
the bidding of the mistress of all these treasures: 
eight valets-de-chamhre and a like number of foot- 
men, two coachmen, three postilions, three running- 
footmen, two sedan-chairmen, five grooms, a maitre 
d' hot el, a clerk to keep the household accounts, two 
valets de garde-robe, a Swiss and two gardeners. 

Never had such gorgeous menials been seen before. 
On ordinary occasions, the valets-de-chambre and 
footmen contented themselves with " coats of chamois 
cloth gallooned with silver, waistcoats and breeches 
of chamois silk, with buttons, garters, and buckles of 
silver." But on occasions of ceremony, as, for instance, 
when the King dined or supped with their mistress, they 
appeared arrayed in " coats of scarlet cloth gallooned 
with gold and with basques of white Naples silk, scar- 
let silk waistcoats and breeches, with gold buttons, 
garters, and buckles." The coachmen were attired in 
sky-blue cloth, and chamois waistcoats with silver but- 
tons; the running- footmen, postilions — the lady was 
never drawn by less than four horses — and grooms, in 
blue and silver; the sedan-chairmen in scarlet and 

" E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 34 et seq. Imbert de 
Saint Armand's Les Femmes de Versailles: Les Dernieres Annies 
de Louis XV 142 et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 193 

silver; while the rest of the household wore a blue 
livery gallooned with silver. 

Until the close of the year 1772 Madame du Barry 
had no residence at Versailles, save her apartments in 
the chateau ; the majority of her servants being lodged 
at the Hotel de Luynes, as it was impossible for their 
mistress to accommodate more than a few of them. 
This arrangement was not without its inconveniences, 
so, in December 1772, the favourite purchased from 
Binet, first valet-de-chamhre to the Dauphin, for 80,- 
000 livres, an hotel, or rather pavilion, situated at the 
corner of the Avenue de Paris and the Rue de 
Montboron. Her new acquisition, however, proved 
to be far too small for the lady's requirements, and 
she, accordingly, bought some four acres of land be- 
tween the pavilion and the Rue de Montboron, and 
instructed the architect Ledoux to build her an hotel 
here. For some reason, which, curiously enough, is 
not stated, the erection of this hotel, the chief feature 
of which was a splendid porch, appears to have given 
umbrage tO' the Dauphin, but, according to M. Le Roi, 
the more he objected, the more ostentatiously was the 
work pressed on. 

About the middle of December 1770, Madame du 
Barry, finding that, notwithstanding the alterations 
and additions designed by Gabriel, her chateau oi 
Louveciennes was still too small to permit of her 
entertaining on the scale she desired, had commis- 
sioned the architect Ledoux to construct a pavilion 
beside it; and at the beginning of January 1772 the 
building was completed.® 

This beautiful pavilion, about which so much has 

been written, consisted of a simple rez-de-chaiissee 

" Some writers have stated that the pavilion was completed in 
three months, and that Ledoux ow'ed his place in the Academy of 
Architecture to the amazing celerity with which he carried out 
the work ; but this was not the case. 



194 MADAME DU BARRY 

built of Saint-Leu stone, surmounted by a belvedere. 
It was about twenty to twenty-five feet in height and 
the same in breadth, with five windows on each side. 

A flight of seven or eight steps led up tO' a peristyle 
of four Ionic columns, the pediment of which was 
adorned by a Bacchanalian dance of children in low- 
relief, the work of Lecomte. 

The vestibule, which served on great occasions as 
a dining-room, was built of grey marble with four 
Corinthian pilasters. Between the pilasters, the capi- 
tals of which were lavishly gilded, were placed four 
groups of women holding horns of plenty, beautifully 
executed by Lecomte and Pajou. At either end of 
the vestibule were tribunes for the accommodation of 
musicians, and over the door leading into the main 
salon was the portrait of a person decorated with the 
cordon hleu, probably the King. Around the room ran 
a frieze of Cupids, amidst which were placed the 
united arms of Madame du Barry and her husband.' 

Behind the vestibule was the main salon, on either 
side of which were two smaller salons. The main 
salon contained dessus-de-portes by Fragonard,^ some 

■^And not, says M. Vatel, those of Madame du Barry and 
Louis XV., as the Goncourts state, which may be seen by exam- 
ining the beautiful water-colour by Moreau le jeune, now in the 
Louvre, of which we shall presently speak. The arms which 
Madame du Barry had invented for the mythical Vaubernier 
were a chevron, a hand, and two roses. 

^ Fragonard was also commissioned to paint four panels for 
this room, but they did not take their place upon the walls for 
which they were destined, the reason being, according to the 
writer of an interesting article in the "New York Critic" (No- 
vember 1901), that the artist had been a shade too explicit in 
the matter of portraiture. " Louis XV. resented being painted 
even as a young and fanciful shepherd in company with the 
favourite. The royal sybarite refused to sanction any record of 
his profligacy, and Fragonard's idyl, which traced in such per- 
suasive accents the love of King and courtesan, was supplanted 
by decorations in no way comparable to this dream of youthful 
tenderness." These panels are now in the possession of Mr. 
Pierpont Morgan. 



MADAME DU BARRY 195 

beautiful arabesques, delicately carved by Metivier and 
Feuillet, and a console in which the celebrated Gou- 
thiere had surpassed himself. But, according to 
Madame Vigee Lebrun, the finest ornament of the 
room was the superb view which its windows com- 
manded, embracing as it did Saint-Germain, Le Vesi- 
net, Saint-Denis, the Seine in all its windings, and, in 
the misty distance, Paris. 

Of the two smaller salons, that on the right, the 
ceiling, of which had been painted by Restout and the 
dessus-de-portes by Drouais, contained four magnifi- 
cent pictures by Vien, symbolical of "the progress of 
love in the heart of young girls," and two little marble 
figures from the chisel of Vasse, one an Amour, the 
other representing Folly with a mask in his hand ; that 
on the left was adorned with mirrors, which reflected 
a superb mantelpiece of lapis lazuli. On the ceiling 
Briard had painted an allegory of love in the country.^ 

"Nothing could be more rich, nothing more gor- 
geous, than the furniture and decorations of the in- 
terior," says a contemporary writer; "the tables, the 
chimney-pieces, the locks, the window-fastenings, &c., 
all are of exquisite finish and excessive delicacy." The 
chronicler, however, blames this excess of richness and 
elegance as being in bad taste. "It is neither richness 
nor delicate workmanship which constitute beauty; it 
is the art of giving to each object the character which 
belongs to it."" 

Outside the pavilion were two marble figures, the 
work of the sculptor Allegrain; one representing 
Diana pursued by Actseon, the other a bather — a 
woman — emerging from the water. The head of 

^Dulaure's Nouvelle Description des environs de Paris (Paris, 
1786), ii. 17, et seq. E. and J. de Concourt's La Du Barry, p. 130. 
VateVs Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 116, et seq. 

^"Dulaure's Nouvelle Description des environs de Paris (Paris, 
1786), ii. 19. 

Memoirs — 7 ^^l- ^ 



196 MADAME DU BARRY 

Diana reproduced very plainly the features of Ma- 
dame du Barry. 

The Louvre possesses a beautiful water-colour by 
Moreau le jewne, representing a fete given by Madame 
du Barry to Louis XV. at Louveciennes, on December 
27, 1 77 1, probably for the inauguration of the new 
pavilion. The drawing is thus admirably described by 
M. Vatel: 

"We are in the grand dining-room of the pavilion, 
recognisable by its tribunes and the four groups of 
women by Lecomte and Pajou, only one sees that the 
horns of plenty that they hold are utilised to serve as 
torches. Above is an Olympian ceiling, which recalls 
to mind the Salon d'Hercule at Versailles; below a 
square porch in black and white marble. A dazzling 
clearness, rendered by the painter with consummate 
art, pervades the whole room. The lustres of Gou- 
thiere blaze like the lights in a picture of Schalken; 
everything breathes a festal air. 

"The King sits by Madame du Barry's side, a score 
of persons are at the supper-table; great ladies and 
beribboned noblemen. 

"About the table move a crowd of lackeys, carrying 
dishes or waiting upon the guests ; some of them with 
their three-cornered hats on their heads, their swords 
by their sides, their red coats and blue facings, would 
appear to be Gardes Suisses. 

"The King seems to have his own private servants, 
attentive behind his chair. He is speaking tO' no one, 
and is isolated and grave in the midst of this joyous 
atmosphere; his hand rests nonchalantly on the table 
near his plate; his glance is mournful; his expression- 
less face is that of a bored man. 

"On his right is Madame du Barry, perfectly recog- 
nisable. One would say that Moreau had copied or 
recalled the bust of Pajou. She wears a white or 



MADAME DU BARRY 197 

rose-coloured gown. We can distinguish her diamond 
earrings and the necklace which descends to her bare 
and opulent bosom. 

"Next her, some little distance away, is a great 
nobleman wearing the cordon bleu. We seem to 
recognise in him the Marechal de Richelieu, to judge 
by his statuette in the Louvre and the portrait in the 
Bibliotheque de T Arsenal. His neighbour might be, 
according to a pure supposition on our part, the 
Marechale de Mirepoix; she is turning round and 
placing something, probably sweetmeats, in the hand 
of Zamor." The latter is recognisable by his tawny 
complexion, his size, and his costume. On his head 
is a white cap adorned with a plume, and he wears 
a rose-coloured coat and high black boots. Another 
personage, who is dressed in Madame du Barry's 
livery, attracts attention by the air of importance with 
which he carries in his arms a little greyhound, proba- 
bly that of the mistress of the house. 

" We observe one of her servants approach the 
favourite with an appearance of eagerness, a dish in 

"Zamor was Madame du Barry's Indian page. Many writers 
call him a negro; but this is incorrect, as he was a native of 
Bengal, who had been brought to France by the captain of an 
English ship. He was about seven years old when the countess 
took him into her service — a step which, as we shall see here* 
after, she had bitter reason to regret. His mistress had him 
taught to read and write, and, on July 4, 1772, he was baptized 
at the Church of Notre Dame at Versailles, the sponsors being 
" the High and Puissant Prince Louis Frangois Joseph de Bour- 
bon, Comte de la Marche, represented by his concierge, and the 
High and Puissant Dame Benedicte de Vaubergny (sic) Com- 
tesse du Barry, represented by her femme-de-chamhre." Zamor 
was a great favourite with Madame du Barry and also with the 
old King, to whom his impish pranks caused great amusement. 
According to the Anecdotes, Louis rewarded his antics by ap- 
pointing him Governor of the Chateau and Pavilion of Louve- 
ciennes, with a salary of 600 livres, and ordered Maupeou to 
draw up the brevet of the appointment and affix thereto the great 
seal ; but this, like the story of Zamor collecting cockchafers and 
putting them into the Chancellor's wig, is probably a myth. 



198 MADAME DU BARRY 

one hand, his serviette in the other; he seems to be 
whispering in her ear, and to be informing her of 
some important incident connected with his duties. 
Madame du Barry Hstens attentively, and her eyes 
appear to be in search of something. 

"The elaborate supper is not an orgy; it is a Court 
banquet, ceremoniously served, in accordance with all 
the rules of etiquette. The morganatic couple permit 
themselves in public a familiarity which gives us an 
excellent idea of the position of a mmtresse declaree/'^^ 

^ Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 123, et seq. 



CHAPTER XIV 

A LTHOUGH Madame du Barry's influence over 
l\ Louis XV. was, in all probability, greater 
•A. JL than that of her predecessor in the King's af- 
fections, her hopes of obtaining the almost general 
recognition of her position which had been accorded 
to Madame de Pompadour, during the latter part of 
her reign, were fated never to be realised. For this 
there were several reasons. One lay, of course, in the 
difference between the personalities of the two favour- 
ites. The life of Madame de Pompadour previous to 
her " elevation" had been irreproachable, while she 
was one of the most accomplished women of her time 
— a woman, indeed, who, had she but been born to 
the purple, any nation might have been proud to wel- 
come as its queen. The early career of Madame du 
Barry, as we have seen, was not one which would 
bear investigation, and, beyond her gaiety and good 
nature, she had no qualities which might serve to 
reconcile the Court to her sway. Another reason was 
the resentment aroused by the dismissal of Choiseul. 
Madame de Pompadour, it is true, had been directly 
responsible for the dismissal of half a dozen Min- 
isters; but neither Orry, Maurepas, the two d'Argen- 
sons, Machault, nor Bernis had had any very consid- 
erable following, and their misfortunes had been, in 
consequence, received with comparative indifference, 
whereas Choiseul's partisans comprised the most in- 
tellectual portion of the nation, and his fall was re- 
garded as a public calamity. A third cause was to 

199 



200 MADAME DU BARRY 

be found in the fact that, even in the few years that 
had elapsed since the death of Madame de Pompa- 
dour, the doctrines which were steadily undermining 
the whole social fabric had made material progress; 
new ideas, new conceptions of monarchy and its duties, 
were spreadii;ig fast among all classes; people were 
no longer inclined to regard with complacence the 
spectacle of a royal mistress squandering the public 
money upon a hundred whims and caprices. 

But it would appear to have been to a different 
cause to which Madame du Barry attributed her fail- 
ure to overcome the hostility of an influential section 
of the Court, and tO' remove which all her efforts were 
now directed. This was the attitude persisted in by 
the young Dauphiness, who, in spite of the represen- 
tations of Mercy, could not be prevailed upon to ac- 
cord " the most foolish and impertinent creature imag- 
inable" the slightest mark of recognition, and treated 
her and her partisans with the utmost disdain. 

Towards the end of June 1771, d'Aiguillon, who 
had met with a very icy reception from Marie Antoi- 
nette on the occasion of his presentation to her as 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, had an interview with 
Mercy, in which, after eulogising the beauty, grace, 
intelligence, and so forth of the Dauphiness, he in- 
formed the Ambassador that he had been commanded 
by the King to intimate to him that his Majesty had 
observed with annoyance " signs of an aversion too 
strongly marked towards the persons who composed 
the intimate society of the King"; that not only did 
the princess refuse them the recognition due to mem- 
bers of the Court, but added " words of satire and 
hatred"; that this was creating much ill-feeling, and 
destroying the tenderness of the King towards her, 
and that it was very essential that it should cease. 

Mercy hastened to express his regret and his convic- 



MADAME DU BARRY 201 

tion that the blame for the unfortunate state of affairs 
of which d'Aiguillon had spoken rested not with the 
princess herself, but with those who had dared to 
speak to her " of things she ought never to know or 
to see" ; hinted at the " pernicious counsels " of 
Mesdames, and assured the Minister that " the least 
tender and affectionate Insinuations coming from the 
King'' could not fail to produce their effect, and that 
he would do everything In his power to further his 
Majesty's wishes. ** It is clear," he writes to Maria 
Theresa, " that the proceeding of the Due d'Aiguillon 
had been planned on the advice of Madame du Barry, 
with the intention of gradually inducing Madame la 
Dauphine to treat the favourite better." 

The Empress, who had been much alarmed by the 
evidence of Madame du Barry's influence afforded by 
the fall of Choiseul, and was very dubious as to the 
attitude of d'Aiguillon towards the Franco-Austrian 
alliance, and still more so with regard to the reception 
her designs upon Poland were likely to meet with at 
Versailles, lost no time in despatching a letter of re- 
monstrance to her daughter. She informs her that she 
has been told that her reception of d'Aiguillon had left 
much to be desired; that she held herself aloof from 
all his party; that they were of the King's Court as 
well as herself; and that she should submit to his 
Majesty's will " with the respect and obedience of a 
child." " It ought to suffice for your favour that the 
King distinguishes such or such an one, without ex- 
amining their merits." 

She concludes by warning her against Mesdames, 
who, " filled with virtue and possessing real merit, 
have never learned how to make themselves loved 
or respected either by their father or the public. 
Everything which is said or done in their circle 
is common knowledge, and, in the end, all will 



202 MADAME DU BARRY 

be laid at your door, and you alone will bear the 
blame."^ 

Her words, joined to the representations of Mercy, 
were not without effect. On July 24, the Ambassador 
writes from Compiegne that, on receipt of the Em- 
presses letter, the princess had become very grave and 
thoughtful ; that the same evening, while playing lans- 
quenet with the King and the Royal Family, she ha,d 
found herself seated next to Madame du Barry, and 
had shown how highly she valued the Imperial advice 
by displaying '' neither disgust nor temper," but, on 
the contrary, speaking to the favourite, whenever the 
incidents of the game required that she should do so, 
'^gracefully and without affectation, saying neither too 
much nor too little." Nor was this all, for next day the 
Due d'Aiguillon, happening to present himself while the 
princess was at play, met with an extremely gracious 
reception, *'the Dauphiness speaking to him frequently 
with a charming air of gaiety"; which condescension 
appears to have so astonished the new Minister that, 
consummiate courtier though he was, he could only 
reply in monosyllables. 

Maria Theresa expresses her satisfaction at the 
good news in her next letter to Mercy : 

"I am very pleased that my daughter has begun to 
treat the Due d'Aiguillon better. Without entering 
into their personalities, she ought to be the same to all 
the members of the dominant party, even to the Com- 
tesse du Barry, and speak to her on any unimportant 
matter as she would tO' every other lady whom the 
King admits to his Court ; she should even distinguish 
her. She ought to ignore what this woman is and 
treat her well, without condescending to anything un- 
worthy."' 

And to Marie Antoinette she writes : 

* Letter of July 9, 1771. ^Letter of August 10, 1771. 



MADAME DU BARRY 203 

" Mercy informs me that you have, on his advice, 
begun to treat the ruhng party with courtesy, and have 
even addressed a few vague remarks in that direction, 
which have had a marvellous effect. I do not enlarge 
upon this matter; Mercy is charged to speak to you 
freely; I am only delighted that you lend yourself so 
promptly to his counsel."^ 

Madame du Barry, however, was not satisfied with 
"a few vague remarks"; she desired a more formal 
recognition of her position from the first lady in the 
land, and had made up her mind to obtain it; and, 
accordingly, gave the King no rest until he had prom- 
ised that he would himself interview Mercy, with a 
view to putting an end to the cruel humiliations which, 
she declared, were rendering her life miserable. 

" I was invited to sup with the Comtesse de Valen- 
tinois," writes the Ambassador, " and repaired thither 
with the Nuncio and the Sardinian Ambassador. We 
found there the Due and Duchesse d'Aguillon, the Due 
de la Vrilliere, a dame du palais, some other ladies in 
the service of the Comtesse de Provence,^ and the 
Comtesse du Barry. It was the first time that I had 
found myself in the company of this woman. The 
Sardinian Ambassador spoke to her first as to a person 
with whom he was well acquainted ; the Nuncio showed 
himself very anxious to join in the conversation. I 
thought it incumbent upon me to show more reserve, 
and it was not until the favourite had addressed me 
that I allowed myself to converse freely with her. I 
received, on her side, a more gracious reception than 
the others were accorded. I did not sit down to table, 
and the Comtesse du Barry, giving as her reason that 
she was compelled to return to her apartments before 

^Letter of August 17, 1771. 

* Louis Marie Josephine of Savoy, daughter of Victor Amadeus 
III., King of Sardinia. She had been married to the Comte de 
Provence, June 14, 1771. 



204 MADAME DU BARRY 

eleven o'clock, did not sup either. The conversation 
was interrupted by the Due d'Aiguillon, who, taking 
me aside, informed me that the King* desired to speak 
to me in private, and that he had charged him to pro- 
pose that, the following day, on his return from the 
chase, I should repair to the Comtesse du Barry's 
apartments, where his Majesty would see me. I replied 
without hesitation that I would go wherever the King 
required me." 

The following morning, the Dauphiness received the 
Ambassadors, and, approaching Mercy, said in a low 
voice : " I felicitate you on the good company in which 
you supped on Sunday." 

" Madame," replied Mercy, " an event much more 
remarkable is going to happen to-day, and to-morrow I 
shall have the honour of rendering an account of it to 
your Royal Highness." 

That evening, at seven o'clock, the Ambassador pre- 
sented himself at the favourite's apartments in the 
chateau. D'Aiguillon came to meet him, and informed 
him that the King had just returned from hunting 
and was dressing, after which he carried off two or 
three persons who were present into an adjoining 
room, under the pretence of looking at a picture, leav- 
ing Mercy alone with Madame du Barry. 

The favourite seized the opportunity to tell the Am- 
bassador how delighted she was that the King's idea 
of giving him audience in her apartments had afforded 
her an opportunity of making his acquaintance, and 
that she wished to take advantage of it to speak to him 
of a painful subject which affected her deeply. She 
was not ignorant, she said, that, for a long time past, 
people had been engaged in endeavours to ruin her 
with the Dauphiness, and that, to effect their object, 
" they had had recourse to the most atrocious calum- 
nies" in daring to attribute to her disrespectful words 



MADAME DU BARRY 205 

concerning her Royal Highness. So far from having 
to reproach herself with a crime so terrible, she had 
always been numbered among those who ** justly ex- 
tolled the charms of the archduchess." Although the 
princess had constantly treated her with severity and 
a kind of contempt, she had never indulged in any com- 
plaints against her Royal Highness, but only against 
those who inspired her to these marks of dislike, and 
that whenever a question had arisen of granting some 
request made by the Dauphiness, she had used her in- 
fluence with the King in the princess's favour. 

Mercy assured the favourite that she was under a 
complete misapprehension in supposing the Dauphi- 
ness capable of sentiments so contrary to her charac- 
ter, and, we may suppose, paid the lady many pretty 
compliments, which pleased her so much that she be- 
came quite familiar, confided to her guest some inter- 
esting details about her life, her plans for amusing the 
King, her opinion of certain personages of the Court, 
and so forth. 

The confidences were interrupted by the arrival of 
Louis XV., who entered by the private staircase be- 
tween his apartments and those of his mistress. 

" Must I retire. Monsieur f" inquired Madame du 
Barry. 

Mercy's astonishment at hearing the most Christian 
King addressed by such an appellation was so pro- 
found that he would appear to have had some difiiculty 
in persuading himself that he was not dreaming.^ But 
his Majesty seemed to take it quite as a matter of 

*" Although I pass my life here in witnessing extraordinary 
things, I am not often able to regard them as dreams. I have seen 
the King in company with Madame du Barry; she calls him 
* Monsieur/ and treats him as an equal. He takes it in very 
good part, and even in my presence, did not appear annoyed at 
his favourite behaving thus." — Letter of Mercy to Kaunitz, Sep- 
tember 2, 1771., 



2o6 MADAME DU BARRY 

course, and smilingly intimated tO' the favourite that 
he wished tO' be alone with the Ambassador, upon 
which the lady withdrew, and the King, turning to 
Mercy, said : ''Up to the present you have been the 
Ambassador of the Empress; now I beg you to be 
my Ambassador, at least for a time." Then, with 
much embarrassment, he began to speak of Marie 
Antoinette, declaring that he loved the princess with all 
his heart, that he found her charming, but that she was 
young and impressionable, and, since her husband was 
not in a position to advise her, it was impossible that 
she should escape the snares that intrigue laid for her ; 
that he had remarked with displeasure that she had 
conceived certain prejudices and dislikes, obviously 
the result of the evil counsels of those by whom she 
was surrounded, and that she was treating very badly 
certain persons whom he had admitted to his private 
circle of friends. "See Madame la Dauphine fre- 
quently," he concluded. "I authorise you to say to her, 
on my behalf, whatever you think necessary; she is 
being given bad advice, and must not be allowed to 
follow it. You see what confidence I have in you, 
since I tell you what is in my mind in regard to the 
private life of my family." 

Mercy endeavoured to make the King comprehend 
that it would be far betterj as the matter under dis- 
cussion was of so very delicate a nature, if his Majesty 
would take upon himself the task of remonstrating 
with the Dauphiness. But Louis, as is well known, had 
an invincible repugnance to personal explanations with 
m.embers of the Royal Family, and on the rare occa- 
sions on which he contrived to summon up sufficient 
courage to reprimand them, invariably had recourse 
to writing ; and the Ambassador, finding his represen- 
tations useless, consented to accept the commission 
offered him, and left the chateau, not altogether dis- 



MADAME DU BARRY 207 

pleased at finding that he had become, in the short 
space of two days, the friend of the favourite and the 
confidant of the King. 

In accordance with his promise to Louis XV., Mercy- 
lost no time in seeking an interview with Marie An- 
toinette, and pointing out to her the inconsistency of 
her attitude towards the mistress. If, said he, you 
wish to show by your behaviour that you are aware of 
the role that Madame du Barry plays at Court, your 
dignity requires that you should request the King to 
forbid this woman to appear henceforth in your pres- 
ence; if, on the contrary, you wish tO' appear ignorant 
of the true position of the favourite, you ought to treat 
her as you would any other lady of the Court, and, 
when occasion offers, speak to her, were it only once, 
" which would put an end to all specious pretext for 
recriminations." Then he advised her to have a few 
minutes' conversation with the King on the matter, and 
persuaded the Abbe de Vermond to urge the same 
course upon the princess. But whatever effect their 
representations had was quickly undone by Mesdames; 
Marie Antoinette declared that " her courage failed 
her," and all that she could be prevailed upon to prom- 
ise was to speak once to the favourite. 

The Ambassador at once communicated this wel- 
come intelligence to Madame du Barry, upon which 
that lady announced her intention of joining the circle 
of the Dauphiness on the following Sunday, and giv- 
ing the princess an opportunity of redeeming her prom- 
ise. Mercy hurried off to warn Marie Antoinette, who 
answered that she was prepared to keep her word, but 
insisted that he should be present. It was then ar- 
ranged that on Sunday, at the close of the evening's 
card-playing, Mercy was to approach the favourite and 
engage her in conversation, and that the Dauphiness, in 
passing round the room, should stop and speak to him, 



2o8 MADAME DU BARRY 

and then, as if taking- an opportunity, address a few 
words to Madame du Barry. Marie Antoinette de- 
clared that this was the only way in which she could 
bring herself to do what he wished, as she felt so 
afraid, and Mercy implored her to be firm, and strictly 
enjoined upon her to say nothing- about their plan to 
her aunts. This the Dauphiness promised readily 
enough, but broke her word, with what result we shall 
now see. 

" In the evening," says Mercy, " I went to the 
assembly ; the Comtesse du Barry was present with her 
friends. Madame la Dauphine called me aside, and 
told me that she was frightened, but that her intentions 
remained unchanged. The game being at an end, her 
Royal Highness sent me to place myself beside the 
favourite, whom I engaged in conversation. In a mo- 
ment all eyes were turned upon us. Madame la Dau- 
phine began to speak to the ladies present ; she reached 
my side, and was not two paces away, when Madame 
Adelaide, who had not lost sight of her for a moment, 
raised her voice and exclaimed: *Let us go; it is 
time to await the King at my sister Victoire's.' At 
these words Madame la Dauphine turned away, and 
the whole scheme came to nothing." 

That same evening, presumably in anticipation of 
victory, all the Ambassadors, including the Papal 
Nuncio— who seems to have been one of the most as- 
siduous of the favourite's courtiers, though the story 
of his having put on the lady's slippers one morning 
at her toilette is probably a myth — ^had been invited to 
supper by Madame du Barry. Mercy was one of those 
present, and was agreeably surprised to find that, " in, 
spite of the little humiliation which she had just ex- 
perienced at the hands of Madame la Dauphine," his 
fair hostess treated him with the utmost graciousness. 
He explained to d'Aiguillon, who was among the 



MADAME DU BARRY 209 

guests, what had passed that evening, and flattered 
himself that he had succeeded in throwing all the 
blame on the shoulders of Mesdames, 

Presently, the King, on his way from the Council to 
sup, with the Royal Family, came in for a moment, 
impatient to learn the result of the Ambassador's little 
scheme, and, later in the evening returned, and, " hav- 
ing as it were pushed me into a corner," said, in a very 
confused manner : " Ah well ! M. de Mercy, you have 
seen the Dauphiness? Your advice bears but little 
fruit; I shall have to come to your help"; and then 
turned away without giving the Ambassador time to 
reply. 

To any one unacquainted with Louis XV. 's char- 
acter those words might have been understood to im- 
ply that he meditated a personal remonstrance with 
the Dauphiness or Mesdames. But Mercy knew that 
it was perfectly hopeless to expect anything of the 
kind, and that the monarch would probably confine the 
marks of his displeasure to " sulks and silence" when- 
ever the offending parties happened to approach him, 
and he, accordingly, sent an exhaustive account of the 
whole affair to Vienna and made strong representa- 
tions to Marie Antoinette, warning her that compari- 
sons were being made between her conduct and that of 
the Comtesse de Provence— who had lately made 
Madame du Barry supremely happy by speaking to 
her " without affectation," — ^and very much to the dis- 
advantage of the Dauphiness. The princess expressed 
due contrition, and pleaded in extenuation her fear of 
her aunts ! 

Mercy's ''humble report" to Vienna brought a strong 
letter of remonstrance from Maria Theresa to her 
daughter, so strong indeed that the Empress judged 
it advisable to ask the Ambassador to read it before 
handing it to the Dauphiness, and to return it, if he 



2IO MADAME DU BARRY 

considered that the strictures it contained were too 
severe. 

Maria Theresa to Marie Antoinette. 

"Schonbrunn^ September 30, 1771. 
..." Marsy^ has confirmed what all my letters tell 
me, namely, that you only act as your aunts direct. I 
esteem them, I love them, although they have never 
known how to make themselves either esteemed or 
loved by their own family or the public ; and you wish 
to follow the same road. This fear and embarrassment 
of speaking to the King, the best of fathers ! That of 
speaking to people to whom you are advised to speak ! 
Confess this embarrassment, this fear of saying a sim- 
ple 'Good-morning' ; a word about a dress or some 
other trifle costs you so many grimaces! Actually 
grimaces, or worse! You have allowed yourself to 
be dragged into such bondage that your reason and 
even your duty are no longer able to guide you. I 
can no longer keep silent. After the conversation with 
Mercy and all that he impressed upon you that the 
King desired, that your duty demanded, that you 
should have dared to fail him ! What good reason can 
you allege? None. You ought neither to know nor 
see the Barry in any other light than as a lady admit- 
ted to the Court and the society of the King. You are 
his first subject, you owe him obedience and submis- 
sion; you owe an example to the courtiers, who ex- 
ecute the will of your master. If anything degrading, 
any familiarities were required of you, neither I nor 
any one else would counsel them, but an indifferent 
word, certain attitudes, not for the sake of the lady, 
but for your grandfather, your master, your benefac- 
tor! And you fail him so conspicuously on the fi'rst 

® The Abbe de Marsy, a Lorrainer in the Austrian service, who 
had lately been on a visit to France. 



MADAME DU BARRY 211 

occasion on which you could obHge him, and show 
him your attachment! Let us see now for what rea- 
son? A shameful complaisance for people who have 
reduced you to dependence, by treating you as a child, 
procuring you rides on horseback, on donkeys, amuse- 
ments with children, with dogs. See the great reasons 
for your preference for them over your master, and 
which will render you ultimately ridiculous, unloved 
and unesteemed. You began so well; your judgment 
when not directed by others is always true and just. 
Let yourself be guided by Mercy; what happiness 
could either he or I have except your own happiness 
and the good of the State? Free yourself from these 
false ideas; it is for you, after the King, to lead, and 
not to be led away like a child when you wish to speak. 
You are afraid to speak to the King, but you are not 
afraid to disobey and disoblige him. I fear that, for a 
short time, I must permit you to avoid verbal explana- 
tions with him ; but I insist that you convince him by 
all your actions of your respect and affection. ... I 
have detained the courier until the first day of the 
month, and I cannot conceal from you that I was so 
overwhelmed by the news that he brought me that I 
needed time to recover. I do not demand that you 
should break with the company that you frequent; 
God forbid ! But I wish you to take counsel of Mercy 
in preference to them, to see him more frequently, to 
speak to him of everything, and to communicate 
nothing that he says to you to others. Too much com- 
plaisance savours of degradation and weakness; you 
must know how to play your own part if you wish to 
be esteemed. If you suffer yourself to be discouraged, 
I foresee great troubles for you, nothing but mis- 
chief-making and petty intrigues, which will render 
your life miserable. I desire to warn you of this; I 
conjure you to believe the advice of a mother who 



212 MADAME DU BARRY 

knows the world and idolises lier children, and desires 
only to pass her last sad days in being of use to them. 
I embrace you tenderly ; do not think me offended, but 
touched and occupied with your welfare." 

The vigorous language in which Maria Theresa 
addresses her daughter in the aforegoing letter was 
dictated by more weighty consideration than the young 
princess's personal welfare. The seizure of Zips by 
Austrian troops the previous year had been followed by 
further aggressions in Poland, and Kaunitz was now 
actively negotiating with Frederick the Great and the 
Czarina Catherine for a share of that unhappy country. 
Sorely against her will had the Empress-Queen been 
brought to acquiesce in the participation of Austria in 
this iniquitous deed,^ but having once consented, her 
scruples were laid aside, and all her energies hence- 
forth devoted to making the best possible bargain with 
her fellow robbers and overcoming the opposition of 
the French Court. 

That exhausted and ill-governed France would at- 
tempt armed intervention between the Eastern Powers 
and their prey was, of course, out of the question; but, 
on the other hand, there was every likelihood that she 
might take serious umbrage at the policy pursued by 
Austria, with the result that the alliance to which 

*"When all my lands were invaded, and I knew not where in 
the world I should find a place to be brought to bed in, I relied 
on my good right and the help of God. But in this thing, where 
not only public law cries to Heaven against us, but also natural 
Justice and sound reason, I must confess never in my life to 
have been in such trouble, and am ashamed to show my face. 
Let the Prince (Kaunitz) consider what an example we are 
giving to all the world, if, for a miserable piece of Poland, or 
Moldavia,^ or Wallachia, we throw our honour and reputation 
to the winds. I see well that I am alone, and no more in 
vigour; therefore I must, though to my very great sorrow, let 
things take their course." — Letter of Maria Theresa to KaunitS 
(undated), cited in Carlyle's "Frederick the Great," x. 34. 



MADAME DU BARRY 213 

Maria Theresa looked for support against the steadily 
increasing power of Prussia might be strained to 
breaking point. Hence it was, above all things, neces- 
sary to maintain the best possible personal relations 
with Louis XV.; hence her indignation and alarm at 
the impolitic conduct of her daughter. 

Marie Antoinette's repugnance to make even the 
smallest concession to the feelings of Madame du 
Barry was not lessened by the persistent attempts of the 
favourite's partisans to control the appointments in the 
princess's Household. In the autumn of that year the 
Dauphiness's dame d'atours, the Duchesse de Villars, 
fell dangerously ill, the doctors who attended her pro- 
nounced her recovery hopeless, and the question of her 
successor at once began to agitate the minds of the in- 
triguers of the Court. Such an opportunity of estab- 
lishing a spy of his own about the person of the princess 
seemed too good to be lost, and the Due de la Vauguy- 
on forthwith determined to secure the post for his 
daughter-in-law, Madame de Saint-Megrin. Prompted 
by him, the poor Duchesse de Villars thereupon wrote 
a letter to the Dauphin reminding him, that the sur- 
vivorship to the office in question had been promised 
to Madame de Saint-Megrin by the late Dauphiness, 
and begging him to use his influence with the King to 
secure the nomination of that lady. The Dauphin had 
by this time contrived to overcome the awe with which 
he had once regarded the Due de la Vauguyon, and was 
no longer submissive to his will. But he had an in- 
tense veneration for his mother's memory, and accord- 
ingly, without saying a word to Marie Antoinette, 
wrote to the King, soliciting the coveted appointment 
for Madame de Saint-Megrin. Almost at the same 
moment, Louis received a letter from the Dauphiness 
protesting against the proposed nomination, a rumor 



214 MADAME DU BARRY 

of which had just reached her, and asking that the 
place might be given to one of her own ladies. The 
King, anxious to keep the peace, refused both requests, 
representing that Madame de Saint-Megrin was too 
young for so important a charge, and that the Dauphin- 
ess was herself too young to be permitted to choose 
her dame d' a tours. 

Madame de Villars died, and the Dauphiness, in ter- 
ror lest the Comtesse de Valentinois, Madame de Mont- 
morency, or some other intimate of the favourite 
should be appointed, renewed her request that the 
duchess's successor should be chosen from her own 
Household. The King curtly refused, and expressed 
a hope that *' his dear daughter" would receive whom- 
ever he might select for her with respect and submis- 
sion. 

Finally, it was announced that the Duchesse de 
Cosse had been appointed. 

The Duchesse de Cosse was not one of the Du Barry 
clique, and she was a young woman of irreproachable 
virtue ; but her husband, of whom we shall have a good 
deal to say hereafter, was one of the favourite's most 
intimate friends, and it was he who had solicited the 
appointment and obliged his wife, who cared little for 
Court life and passed most of her time in Paris, to 
accept it. When Marie Antoinette received the King's 
letter informing her of his choice, she "wept with 
rage," and her aversion to Madame du Barry became, 
if it were possible, greater than ever. 

But the exigencies of the political situation were too 
strong to permit the Dauphiness to indulge her preju- 
dices much longer; Maria Theresa wrote to Mercy 
imploring him to induce her daughter " to place her- 
self on a footing more in conformity with the situation 
of affairs and my interests," and at length Marie An- 
toinette consented to speak to the favourite. 



MADAME DU BARRY 215 

On New Year's Day it was the custom for all ladies 
who had been presented to pay their respects to the 
Royal Family. " I was informed that Madame du 
Barry had decided to perform that duty/' writes 
Mercy, '' and on New Year's Eve had an interview 
with Madame la Dauphine, and persuaded her Royal 
Highness, by every means in my power, not to treat 
the favourite badly. It was with great difficulty that 
I obtained a promise to this effect. The essential point 
was that Mesdames should not be informed, and this, 
happily, was attained." On the following morning, 
Madame du Barry presented herself before the Dau- 
phiness, accompanied by the Duchesse d'Aiguillon and 
the Marechale de Mirepoix. Marie Antoinette spoke 
first to the duchess, then, passing before Madame du 
Barry, '' and regarding her without constraint or affec- 
tation," she said to her : " There are a great number 
of people at Versailles to-day." 

At these simple words the Court was in a ferment of 
excitement. In the evening, the King embraced the 
Dauphiness tenderly and overwhelmed her with dem- 
onstrations of affection ; the partisans of the favourite 
vied with one another in extolling the charms and vir- 
tues of the princess, while, on the other hand, 
Mesdames could not contain their indignation, and 
went so far as to accuse their hitherto docile pupil of 
treason. 

Under the frowns and spiteful remarks of her 
aunts, poor Marie Antoinette began to repent of the 
step she had taken. " I went to the dinner of 
Madame I'Archiduchesse," writes Mercy. " When she 
rose from table, she said : * I have followed your 
advice ; here is the Dauphin, who will bear witness to 
my conduct.' The prince smiled, but said nothing. 
Then Madame I'Archiduchesse related to me what 
had passed, and concluded by saying, * I have spoken 



2i6 MADAME DU BARRY 

this once, but I am quite decided to stop there; that 
woman shall never hear my voice again.' "^ 

However, a great point had been gained; Marie 
Antoinette had succeeded, temporarily at least, in shak- 
ing off the yoke of Mesdames, and, for some time, she 
continued to follow the counsels of her mother and 
Mercy, and threw no more obstacles in the path of 
their diplomacy. And so, for the sake of a few in- 
different words from the Dauphiness to the mistress 
of the King, the old clients of France were abandoned 
to their fate, and Austria permitted to grab her share 
of poor distracted Poland without the smallest remon- 
strance from Versailles. " We must not speak of 
Polish affairs before you," said Louis XV., smiling, 
to his grand-daughter one day, " because your relatives 
are not of the same opinion as ourselves." That was 
the only hint of disapproval that was ever known to 
escape him. 

That Maria Theresa was well aware that her large 
share of the '^ gateau des Rois '' depended upon the 
attitude of her daughter towards " the lady who en- 
joys the confidence of the King " — as the Swedish Am- 
bassador styles the favourite — is clearly shown by her 
letters to Mercy. " To ward off these evils " (the pos- 
sible rupture of the Franco- Austrian alliance) " from 
the monarchy and the family," she writes, " we must 
employ every means possible; and there is only my 
daughter, the Dauphiness, aided by your counsels and 
acquaintance with your surroundings, who can render 
this service to her family and her country. Above 
all, it is necessary that she should cultivate, by constant 
attentions and affection, the good will of the King, 
that she should strive to divine his wishes, that she 
should do nothing tO' offend him, that she should treat 
the favourite well. I do not require of her anything 
^ Mercy, to Maria Theresa, January 23, 1772. 



MADAME DU BARRY 217 

degrading, still less intimacy, but attentions due in 
consideration of her grandfather and her master, in 
consideration of the advantage which will redound to 
us and to the two Courts. It may he that the alliance 
depends upon it!" 

The Court was at Compiegne when the Ambassador 
received this letter, and he immediately laid it before 
the Dauphiness, at the same time expatiating upon the 
influence which the all-powerful favourite might be 
able to exercise upon the policy of France, and the 
imperative necessity of conciliating both her and 
d'Aiguillon, not forgetting to impress upon the prin- 
cess a due sense of the honour which the Empress was 
doing her in selecting one so young and inexperienced 
to co-operate in the union between the two kingdoms. 

This lesson, which lasted three-quarters of an hour, 
was not lost upon Marie Antoinette, who writes to her 
mother : 

" Mercy has shown me your letter, which has much 
affected me and given me cause for thought. I will 
do my utmost to contribute to the preservation of the 
alliance. Where should I be if a rupture occurred be- 
tween my two families ? I trust that le hon Dieu will 
preserve me from this misfortune, and inspire me with 
what I ought to do ; I have prayed to Him earnestly." 

That visit to Compiegne was in marked contrast to 
the one of the preceding year. The Dauphiness was 
graciousness itself to d'Aiguillon, actually going out of 
her way to address him, and, on more than one occasion, 
holding him in conversation for some minutes ; and the 
duke, who was just then feeling very uneasy, owing to 
the coldness of the King, who had not yet succeeded In 
overcoming his old dislike of his one-time rival, and 
his suspicions that Maupeou was engaged in intrigu- 
ing against him, began to flatter himself that he had 
found a new means of consolidating his position. 



2i8 MADAME DU BARRY 

What was of a good deal more importance was that 
Madame du Barry also had no cause to complain of 
the princess's treatment of her. She was made happy 
by some remarks about the state of the weather, which 
the Dauphiness let fall one day when the favourite 
joined her circle. It is true that these precious words 
might very well have been addressed to the Duchesse 
d' Aiguillon, who accompanied her friend ; but Madame 
du Barry chose to believe that they were intended for 
her, and retired enchanted to sing the praises of 
Madame la Dauphine in the ears of the gratified King. 
Her joy was augmented by finding that Marie Antoi- 
nette, importuned by Mercy, had begged the Dauphin 
to reappear at the supper-parties at the pavilion of the 
Petit Chateau, where the favourite did the honours; 
in consequence of which the prince had for some time 
refused to attend them, much to the annoyance of the 
King. And what great results followed from these 
trifles, which seem to the historian unworthy even of 
passing mention : these conversations with d' Aiguillon, 
these few remarks about the weather, the presence of 
the greedy Dauphin at a supper, from which he very 
probably returned with a bad attack of indigestion! 
The Du Barry party, which cared nothing for inter- 
national politics, except so far as they might subserve 
its own interests, had no longer anything to gain by 
combating the Dauphiness, and, on the other hand, 
much to lose by disobliging the Empress-Queen. The 
concessions wrung from Marie Antoinette removed 
the last obstacles in the way of the partition of Poland ; 
Austria signed the Treaties of St. Petersburg, and 
Versailles remained silent.'* 

But as the difficulties in Eastern Europe disappear- 

® But Paris did not ; pamphlets and satirical prints were to be 
seen everywhere, and public opinion severely blamed the apathy 
of the Government. 



MADAME DU BARRY 219 

ed, Marie Antoinette, doubtless being of opinion that 
the obHgation to do violence to her feelings in the in- 
terests of the Court of Vienna was no longer so im- 
perative, began to exhibit signs of restiveness which 
filled Mercy with alarm. Towards the end of October, 
the Court being now at Fontainebleau, the Ambas- 
sador went to visit Madame du Barry, who informed 
him that she proposed to pay her respects to the Dau- 
phiness on the following day, and that she looked to 
him to ensure her a favourable reception. Mercy inti- 
mated that it would be hardly correct for him to open 
such negotiations, and that, as the countess had been 
satisfied with the manner in which she had been re- 
ceived at Compiegne, they were clearly superfluous. 
Nevertheless, the moment he quitted the apartments 
of the favourite he did not fail to hasten to Marie 
Antoinette, to prepare the princess for the ordeal be- 
fore her. 

Now, it happened that, a few days earlier, the Dau- 
phiness had complained bitterly to Mercy of w^hat she 
considered a piece of intoleraljle impertinence on the 
part of Madame du Barry. The favourite, it appear- 
ed, had seized upon a piece of the chateau garden run- 
ning level with the apartments of Mesdames, and 
caused a new pavilion to be built there, the windows of 
which commanded a part of the grounds reserved as 
a private promenade for the Royal Family. The con- 
sequence was that the flame of the princess's dislike to 
the mistress was at this particular moment burning 
wuth exceptional vigour, and the Ambassador observ- 
ed with trepidation ''a sort of indecision" in the tone 
in which she assured him that all would be well. 

He, accordingly, determined to be present at the 
reception of the favourite, and to put in an early 
appearance in order to speak a word in season before 
the crucial moment arrived; and when the Dauphin- 



220 MADAME DU BARRY 

ess returned from Mass the following morning, she 
found her mentor awaiting her. *' I have been praying 
earnestly/' said she. "I prayed, * Oh, God! if thou 
wishest me to speak, make me speak. I will act as 
Thou deignest to inspire me.' " 

" I replied to Madame rArchiduchesse," writes 
Mercy, " that the voice of her august mother was the 
only one capable of interpreting the will of God as 
regarded her conduct, and that, therefore, she was 
already inspired about what to do for the best." 

Madame du Barry duly arrived, supported by the 
Duchesse d'Aiguillon. Marie Antoinette spoke first to 
the duchess, as etiquette prescribed ; then looked in the 
direction of the countess and observed that " the 
weather had been so bad that she had been unable to 
go out that day." 

" This remark," says Mercy, " was not addressed 
very directly to any one, and either owing tO' the tone 
of voice, or the manner which accompanied it, the re- 
ception was not one of the best. Happily, M. le Dauphin 
was present, and I attributed to this circumstance 
Madame I'Archiduchesse's air of coldness and embar- 
rassment. I repeated to the favourite what I had told 
her the previous evening, that chance and various in- 
cidents determined, to a greater or less extent, her re- 
ception; and, finally, I succeeded in persuading her 
that in reality she had been well received. She con- 
fessed to me that she believed that she had remarked a 
kindly intention on the part of Madame la Dauphine, 
and that, in fact, she imagined that the presence of M. 
le Dauphine had been the obstacle to a more favourable 
demonstration. In short, up to the present, this occa- 
sion has passed ofif without comments or discontent, 
and that is a great deal more than the actual facts per- 
mitted me to hope for."^° 

" Mercy to Maria Theresa, November 14, 1772. 



MADAME DU BARRY 221 

For the following New Year's Day, Mercy sum- 
moned to his aid all the resources of his diplomacy to 
ensure a favourable reception for Madame du Barry. 
Not only did he extract a solemn promise from Marie 
Antoinette to speak directly to the lady, but he per- 
suaded her to exhort the Dauphin, " who never spoke 
to any one," to do likewise. 

The first part of the programme exceeded the Am- 
bassador's fondest expectations. The Dauphin receiv- 
ed the favourite most graciously, bowed, smiled, and 
mumbled something which was understood to be a 
compliment, to the amazement of the courtiers and the 
unconcealed delight of the recipient. But alas ! her joy 
and the satisfaction of Mercy were but short-lived for 
the Dauphiness, evidently thinking that she had done 
her duty by persuading her husband to civility, de- 
clined to even open her lips, and included in this frigid 
reception the favourite's friends, the Duchesse d'Ai- 
guillon and the Marechale de Mirepoix. 

All Mercy's work seemed again undone ; but he rose 
to the occasion like a man, and argued that Marie An- 
toinette, in inducing the Dauphin, who feared women 
as he feared the small-pox, not only to smile upon, 
but even to speak to Madame du Barry, she had in 
reality done far more than if she had reserved her 
efforts for her own reception. His task was rendered 
the more difficult inasmuch as the favourite's chief 
adviser. Mademoiselle "Chon" du Barry, had already 
persuaded her sister-in-law that she had grave cause 
for complaint against the Dauphiness. However, 
eventually his diplomacy prevailed, and he left the lady 
under the impression that she had been rather well 
treated than otherwise." 

The visit of the Court to Compiegne in the following 
" Mercy fo Maria Theresa, January 16, 1773. 



222 MADAME DU BARRY 

July was made the occasion of a very pretty little in- 
trigue. Madame Adelaide, although she governed her 
sisters, was, in her turn, governed by her dame 
d'atours, the Comtesse de Narbonne, between whom 
and d'Aiguillon the bitterest enmity had hitherto ex- 
isted. D'Aigtiillon, however, in the hope of strength- 
ening his own position by reconciling Madame du 
Barry with the Royal Family, succeeded in persuading 
the countess that it might be to their common advantage 
to make peace and enter into an alliance. The countess 
consented, and a treaty was concluded, the terms of 
which were as follows: Madame de Narbonne's son 
was to receive the mayoralty of Bordeaux, and she 
herself was to be given an interest in the approaching 
renewal of certain monopolies. In return for these 
advantages, Madame de Narbonne was to secure better 
treatment of the favourite by Madame Adelaide, and 
induce that princess to use her influence with the Dau- 
phin, the Dauphiness, and the rest of the Royal Family 
to persuade them to follow her example. 

The first part of the scheme succeeded admirably; 
Madame Adelaide was easily won over by her dame 
d'atours, in whose counsels she reposed the most im- 
plicit confidence, promised that her own treatment of 
the favourite should henceforth leave nothing to be 
desired, and wrote a letter to the King, expressing her 
desire tO' oblige him in everything. His Majesty, 
highly gratified, replied with a very affectionate letter, 
in which he intimated that the best way in which his 
daughter could oblige him would be by bringing the 
Dauphin, "who displayed a marked aversion for the 
fair sex," to show more courtesy towards certain 
ladies whom the King honoured with his friendship. 

Unfortunately, Madame Adelaide had overrated the 
prestige which she enjoyed with her relatives; more- 
over, it was quickly discovered who was responsible 



MADAME DU BARRY 227^ 

for the amazing volte-face committed by the princess. 
The whole Royal Family were furious at the idea of 
one of its members lending herself to the sordid in- 
trigues of her attendants, and its indignation so fright- 
ened poor Madame Adelaide that she retracted every- 
thing, and forbade Madame de Narbonne ever to men- 
tion the subject to her again. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE hostility of Marie Antoinette was not the 
only annoyance which Madame du Barry had 
to endure. The ^^Roue'' as we have said else- 
where, had assisted his former mistress during the 
early days of her favour, when she had prudently kept 
her extravagance within limits, in confident anticipa- 
tion of reaping a rich harvest at a later date. In this 
he was not disappointed. What was the actual amount 
which he succeeded in extorting from Madame du 
Barry at various times it is impossible to say, but, to 
judge from his manner of living, it must have been 
something enormous.* He kept a Parc-aux-Cerfs of 
his own; he married the sultana of his seraglio to a 
chevalier of Saint-Louis and settled 2000 ecus a year 
upon her; he gambled as if he had the coffers of the 
State behind him, losing on one occasion 7000 louis 
at a single sitting and, on another, when condoled with 
on his ill-luck, remarking nonchalantly : " Do' not 
distress yourselves, my friends; it is you" (meaning 
the public treasury) " who will pay for all this." 

Nor did he confine his importunities to appeals for 
financial assistance. He harassed his hapless sister-in- 
law incessantly with advice, warnings, and plans of 

*In December 1769 Madame du Barty asked Louis XV. for 
600,000 livres for her broth'er-in-law, without, however, disclos- 
ing for whom the money was intended. The infatuated monarch 
promised that she should have it and applied to the Comptroller- 
Gen'eral for the amount. Choiseul, however, got to hear of the 
matter, and sent the King proofs that the money was to go to 
the creditors of the Comte Jean, who, of course, remained un- 
paid. 

224 



MADAME DU BARRY 225 

campaign, and intrigued to get confederates of his 
own appointed to important posts in the public service, 
once actually endeavouring to secure that of Comp- 
troller-General for a certain Guenee de Brochau; 
which, of course, would have meant the hand of M. 
du Barry in the Treasury. 

At length his conduct became so intolerable that he 
was recommended to pass a few months on an estate 
at ITsle-Jourdain, which was among the gifts he had 
received from his grateful country, and departed 
thither in a very bad humour, after two or three angry 
scenes with his sister-in-law, which gave rise to the 
belief that he had composed or inspired the following 
chanson against the favourite, which had at this time 
a considerable vogue : 

" Drolesse ! 
Ou prends-tu done ta fierte? 

Princesse ! 
D'ou te vient ta dignite? 
Si jamais ton teint se fane ou se pele, 
Au train 
De catin 
L'e cri du public te rappelle. 

Drolesse, &c. 
Lorsque tu vivais de la Messe 
Du moine, ton pere Gomard, 
Que la Rangon vendoit sa graisse 
Pour joindre a ton morc'eau de lard; 

Tu n'etois pas si fiere 
Et n'en valois que mieux, 

Baisse ta tete altiere, 
Du moins devant mes yeux: 
Ecoute-moi rentre en toi-meme, 

Pour eviter de plus grands maux: 
Permets a qui t'aime, qui t'aime, 
De t'offrlr encore des sabots. 

Drolesse ! 
Mon 'esprit est-il baisse? 
Princesse ! 
Te souvient-il du passe?"' 

'Madame du Deffand sent a copy of these verses to the 
Duchesse de Choiseul, who wrote back that she found them 
charming and " de tres bon gout." 



226 MADAME DU BARRY 

The titular husband of the favourite, the Comte 
Guillaume, followed his brother's example, and ad- 
dressed to his wife threatening letters demanding 
money. In July 1770, Madame du Barry settled upon 
him an annuity of 5000 livres; but this seemed to 
Guillaume a beggarly pittance indeed for the consort 
of an uncrowned queen, and he renewed his impor- 
tunities and threats, and became, in fact, so' great a 
nuisance that the lady decided to apply for a separation 
de corps et d'habitation. The case was tried before the 
Chatelet on February 24, 1772, the countess's plea 
being the " abusive and threatening character of the 
epistles with which her lord was in the habit of favour- 
ing her, three of which were laid before the sympa- 
thetic judges. Guillaume did not oppose the applica- 
tion, his silence having apparently been secured by the 
promise of a further annuity oi 16,600 livres, and the 
separation was duly granted. Madame du Barry 
seems, however, to have been apprehensive that the 
insatiable Guillaume might be tempted to appeal 
against the sentence of the Chatelet, and, accordingly, 
she applied to the Parliament of Paris to confirm the 
decision pronounced in her favour, which was done 
by a decree of April 31, 1772.^ 

Like her predecessor in the post of maitresse en 
titre, Madame du Barry was one of the kindest of rel- 
atives, and seems to have lost no opportunity of push- 
ing the fortunes of her family. She gave her mother, 
the old sempstress, who had blossomed into the dame 
de Monvabe, an apartment in the Convent de Sainte- 
Elisabeth, a carriage, a maison de plaisance, and a 
little farm at Villiers-sur-Orge and was in the habit 
of spending a day with her every fortnight. On Anne 
Becu's death in October 1788, she bestowed a pension 
of 2000 livres on her husband, Rangon, "to recom- 
^Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 139. 



MADAME DU BARRY ^2j 

pense his good conduct towards his spouse." She also 
pensioned her aunt Helene, who called herself Madame 
de Quantigny, and provided for her four children.* 
Nor did the exactions of the ''Roue" and her titular 
husband prevent her from endeavouring to promote 
the interests of the former's son Adolphe, and her 
brother-in-law Elie, the youngest of the Du Barry 
brothers. 

Adolphe du Barry, who had assumed the title of 
viscount, although, of course, he had no more right to 
the appellation than his father and uncle Guillaume 
had to that of count, or the still more aspiring Elie to 
that of marquis,' had begun life as page to the King, 
and later had received a commission in the Regiment 
du Roi, from which, through his aunt's good offices, 
he was transferred to the Chevau-legers of the Guard, 
with the rank of mestre de camp of cavalry. There 
was also some talk of appointing him first equerry to 
the King, but this was prevented by the opposition 
of the Dauphin, who, on hearing of what was in- 
tended, exclaimed, in the midst of a throng of courtiers, 
"If he receives that post, I will give him my boot in 
the face at the first dehottef 

Several attempts were made by Madame du Barry 
to arrange a grand marriage for the "viscount." 
First, she proposed Mademoiselle de Bethune, a 
descendant of Sully, the celebrated Minister of Henri 
IV., but the King pointed out to her the absurdity of 
such pretensions. Then she cast her eyes upon Made- 

* Madame du Barry also placed with Madame de Quantigny a 
little girl, whom she brought up with her own children. This 
little girl, who afterwards married the Marquis de Boissaison, 
was, according to d'Allonville, a daughter of the favourite "by 
a father, unknown," but the statement lacks confirmation. 

* The number of pseudo-noblemen at this period was enor- 
mous. The genealogist Maugard declared in 1788 that there were 
in France at least 8000 marquises, counts, and barons, of whom 
only some 2000 had any legal right to the titles which they bore. 

Memoirs — 8 Vol. 2 



228 MADAME DU BARRY 

moiselle de Saint- Andre, a natural daughter of Louis by 
Mademoiselle Murphy, of the Parc-aux-Cerf s, who was 
being educated at the Convent de la Presentation, in 
the Rue des Postes. Mademoiselle de Saint-Andre's 
guardian, however, opposed the alliance, on the ground 
that the fruit of his Majesty's amours had the right 
to look much higher than a "Vicomte" du Barry; and 
this appeal to Louis's vanity was successful, greatly to 
the vexation of the "Roue," who had suggested' the 
match to his sister-in-law for reasons of high policy, 
his idea being that, in the event of the old King's 
death, the fact that the Du Barrys had allied them- 
selves with the Royal Family would hinder his suc- 
cessor from "yielding to the impulses of hatred,"^ 

At length, however, a wife was found for Adolphe 
in the person of a very lovely young girl, named Made- 
moiselle de Tournon, a member of a very ancient 
family of Auvergne and a connection of the Rohans, 
and on July 19, 1773, the marriage was celebrated at 
Saint-Roch. 

The contract, in which the favourite promised the 
happy pair a. donation of 200,000 livres,' is of great 
interest, owing to the signatures ; indeed it is probably 
one of the most valuable collections of autographs 
ever got together on a single document. They in- 
cluded those of Louis XV., the Dauphin and Marie 
Antoinette, the Comte and Comtess^ de Provence, and 
the three Mesdames; beneath which appear the signa- 
tures of Madame du Barry, the "Roue"^ Mademoiselle 
"Chon" du Barry, and the bride and bridegroom. 
•Letter of Jean du Barry published in the Revue de Paris, 

1836, vol. XXXV. 

The principal was never paid, probably owing to the death 
of Louis XV. in the following year and the consequent change 
in the favourite's fortunes, but Madame du Barry continued to 
pay the interest until November 1791. 

® Jean du Barry figures in the document under the most high- 
sounding titles; not only is he Comte du Barry-Ceres and Gov- 



MADAME DU BARRY 229 

It is somewhat surprising to find the signatures of 
Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin appended to the 
marriage contract of one of the hated Du Barrys, and 
all the more so in veiw of the chilling reception which 
the new "viscountess" received on the occasion of her 
presentation to them at Compiegne, a few days later. 

The favourite, accompanied by the Duchess de Laval 
and the Comtesse de Montmorency, presented her niece 
to the King, after which, followed by an immense 
crowd, the ladies proceeded to the apartments of the 
Dauphin. At the moment of their entry, the prince 
l^as standing in the embrasure of a window, talking 
lo one of his suite and drumming with his fingers on 
the glass. When the usher announced the approach 
of the ladies, the Dauphin turned his head, pretended 
not to see the unfortunate presentee or her sponsor, 
and resumed his conversation and his drumming on 
the window-pane. As for Marie Antoinette, she coldly 
returned the ladies' reverences, but did not speak, to 
either of them. 

It was the same in the evening at the Dauphiness's 
card-table, and at her toilette the next morning, at 
which etiquette required that newly-presented ladies 
should make their appearance ; on neither occasion did 
the princess address a single word to the viscountess. 
Not content with these tokens of her displeasure, she 
refused to allow her tO' accompany her to the chase in 
the Royal carriages, and gave strict injunctions to her 
dame d'honneur, the Comtesse de Noailles, that she 
was not to be invited to her balls. 

Marie Antoinette's cruel treatment of this Innocent 
girl, whose only fault was her connection with the 
favourite, seems to have been the outcome of a ma- 

ernor of Levignac as in 1769, but in the interval he has become 
Vidame de Chaalons, Comte de I'lsle-Jourdain, Seigneur de Belle- 
garde, Bretz and half a dozen other manors, and so forth. 



230 MADAME DU BARRY 

licious slander. It was reported to the princess that 
Madame du Barry, fearing that the King's affection 
for her was on the wane, intended to exploit the beauty 
of her niece, in order to retain the royal favour in the 
family. There does not appear to have been the 
slightest ground for this accusation beyond the fact 
that the young lady bore some resemblance to Madame 
de Chateauroux; but it served its purpose, and the 
poor Vicomtesse Adolphe had to submit all day to the 
covert sneers and ironical smiles of the women of the 
Court, few of whom could compare with her in grace 
or beauty, and on that account were the more pitiless. 

Having secured a wife for her nephew, Madame du 
Barry turned her attention to her brother-in-law, the 
*'Marquis" Elie, for whom, in the following October, 
she arranged a marriage with a Mademoiselle de 
Fumel, daughter of the Marquis de Fumel, obtaining 
for the bridegroom the colonelcy of the Regiment de 
la Reine, and for the bride the post of dame de 
compagnie to the Comtesse d'Artois.^ 

There were now three ladies of the name of Du 
Barry at Court — the marchioness, the countess, and the 
viscountess — which resulted in considerable confusion, 
and contemporary chroniclers not infrequently mis- 
take one Madame du Barry for another. 

The new member of the favourite's family met with 
much the same reception from the Dauphiness as the 
wife of Adolphe had been accorded, in consequence of 
which half the Court affected to ignore her existence, 
and she was plunged in the depths of despair. After 
a while, however, Marie Antoinette, touched with com- 
passion for the unhappy lady, yielded to the entreaties 
of Mercy, and, notwithstanding the fierce opposition of 
Mesdames, "showed one day that she perceived the 

^ Marie Therese of Savoy, younger sister of the Comtesse 
de Provence, married to the Comte d'Artois, November 1773. 



MADAME DU BARRY 231 

marchioness's presence"; but towards the poor Vi- 
comtesse Adolphe she remained implacable. ' 

In the autumn of 1773, Madame du Barry received 
a compliment which must have gone far to console her 
for the mordant verses which so delighted Madame de 
ChoiseuL The financier La Borde, first Groom of the 
Chamber to the King, having occasion to visit Geneva, 
was commissioned by the favourite to call upon Vol- 
taire at Ferney, and bestow upon the philosopher, on 
her behalf, a kiss on either cheek. The commission 
was duly executed, and appears tO' have greatly de- 
lighted the recipient of the kisses, ever susceptible to 
flattery, no matter from what source it came, who 
hastened to express his gratification in the following 
letter : 

"Madame, — M. de la Borde informs me that you 

have instructed him to kiss me on both cheeks, on your 

behalf. 

" Quoi ! deux baisers sur la fin de ma vie ! 
Quelle passeport vous daignez m'envoyer ! 
Dieux ! e'en e,st trop, adorable Egerie : 
Je serais mort de plaisir au premier, 

"He has shown me your portrait. Do not be 
offended, Madame, if I take the liberty of bestowing 
Upon it the two kisses : 

" Vous ne pouvez empecher cet hommage, 
Faible tribut de quiconque a des yeux : 
C'est aux mortels d'adorer votre image; 
L'original etait fait pour les Dieux. 

"I have heard several selections from Pandore, from 
M. de la Borde ;^° they appear to me worthy of your 
protection. The favour shown to real talent is the 
only thing that can augment the eclat with which you 

"La Borde had composed the music to Voltaire's opera of 

Pandore. 



22,2 MADAME DU BARRY 

shme. Deign, Madame, to accept the homage of an 
old hermit, whose heart knows hardly any other senti- 
ment than that of gratitude." 

Voltaire's charming verses soon became public prop- 
erty, as it is highly probable that the poet intended they 
should be, and are to be found in the Almanack des 
Muses for 1774, the ''Correspondence" of Grimm, and 
the works of several contemporary chroniclers. Ma- 
dame de Choiseul duly received a version of them 
from Madame du Deffand, but, needless to observe, 
did not find them "de tres bon gout," and replied that 
"Voltaire had sullied his pen in his old age." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE heart of Louis XV., though not difficult to 
subjugate, was for the same reason, far from 
easy to retain ; and Madame du Barry, like her 
predecessors in her exalted office, was called upon to 
exercise unceasing vigilance in order to safeguard her 
conquest. 

In 1 77 1, Hardy speaks of an intrigue designed to 
supplant the countess by the Princesse de Monaco, the 
mistress of the Prince de Conde, or, in default of her, 
by an English lady, a Miss Smith, and also of a third 
candidate whose name had not been disclosed. A little 
later, it appears that a Madame Beche, the wife of one 
of the royal musicians, aroused momentary alarm in 
the camp of the favourite, and to her succeeded Ma- 
dame d'Amerval, a natural daughter of the Abbe 
Terray. The King is also said to have cast a favour- 
able eye upon several queens of comedy, among them 
Mademoiselle Raucourt and the mother of Made- 
moiselle Mars ; but this charge rests upon very untrust- 
worthy evidence. 

The only one of the aspirants to the royal heart, 
however, about whom we possess any details is a 
Madame Pater, a Dutch lady of good family,^ who had 
married a wealthy East Indian merchant. 

Madame Pater first visited Paris in 1763, where, we 
are told, her beauty, joined to a lively wit,^ excited so 
much admiration that, on the days on which she re- 

*She was the eldest of the six daughters of Baron de New- 
kerke of Nyvenheim. 

''One evening, Madam'e Pater was playing whist, when two 
ladies, both of whom were bitterly jealous of her charms, estab- 

233 



234 MADAME DU BARRY 

ceived, a veritable procession of adorers, ''ranging 
from the Prince de Conde to the most insignificant 
gentleman of the Court," might be seen wending its 
way towards her house, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore. 
The lady, however, had the misfortune to be afflicted 
with an exceedingly jealous husband, who had the bad 
taste to take umbrage at the universal tribute accorded 
to Madame's charms. For a while he nursed his 
wrath in silence, but at length he could contain his 
feelings no longer. Accordingly, one day when the 
Prince de Conde and several other distinguished ad- 
mirers were taking their leave, he accompanied them 
to the door and observed: "I am very sensible. Mes- 
sieurs, of the honour that you do me in visiting my 
house ; though I do not believe that you can find much 
diversion here; je suis toute la journee avec Madame 
Pater, et la nuit je coiiche az^ec ellef 

After this very plain hint the Prince de Conde, who 
preferred easier conquests, retired from the field, and 
the stream of callers sensibly diminished; but by this 
time the fame of the lady's beauty had reached the ears 
of the King, who sent the Prince de Soubise to invite 
Madame Pater to sup with his Majesty at Versailles. 
The invitation would, no doubt, have been accepted, 
had the decision rested with the lady, in which case it 
it not improbable that Jeanne Becu would never have 
attained the "sunlit heights." But Monsieur Pater, 
learning what was in the wind, took alarm, and 
straightway carried off his wife to Holland, much to 
the chagrin of the King.^ 

lished themselves behind her chair, and proceeded to dissect her 
character in stage whispers. Madame Pater pretended not to 
hear, until presently her partner inquired if she had any 
"honours," upon which she glanced round at her rivals and 
replied : " I do not know whether these ladies have left me any." 
^ Comte Fleury's Louis XV. intime: Les petites maitresses, p. 
297, et seq. Manuel's La Police de Paris devoilee, ii. passim. 



MADAME DU BARRY 235 

Ten years elapsed ere Madame Pater returned to 
the scene of her triumphs. In the interval, she had 
contrived to secure a separation from the jealous hus- 
band, and had taken the name of Baronne de New- 
kerke. On this occasion she aspired to an important 
role. Encouraged by the Due de Duras, who is said 
to have been acting under instructions from the exile 
of Chanteloup, she laid determined siege to the heart 
of the King; but her ambition soared much higher 
than the post of maUresse en titre: she had determined 
to follow in the footsteps of Madame de Maintenon. 

Madame Pater's dream of greatness was fated never 
to be realised, but the conduct of the King must cer- 
tainly have afforded her good reason to hope for suc- 
cess. He paid her the most marked attention, gave 
her a handsome pension, and installed her in a suite 
of apartments on the rez-de-chaussee of the Chateau of 
Meudon, where she appears to have divided her time 
between ghostly conferences with a fashionable abbe 
— she had abjured the Protestant faith and been re- 
ceived into the Catholic Church, by the cure of Saint- 
Eustache, in order to further her designs— and taking 
lessons in dancing and deportment from Despreaux, 
of the Opera. 

The latter, who declares that she was the most beau- 
tiful woman that he had ever seen, has left us some 
interesting details about Madame Pater's life at Meu- 
don. He says that every Sunday she dined in the 
grand vestibule, and afterwards held a sort of Court, 
which was attended by the governor and all the officials 
of the chateau, who treated her with the most pro- 
found respect; that occasionally, wearing a mask and 
leaning on the actor's arm, she condescended to take 
a promenade in Meudon, "in the midst of a great 
crowd"; and that the Prince de Lambesc, son of the 
Comte de Brionne, grand cciiyer de France, "loved her 



i>liS MADAIME DU BARRY 

to madness and offered her his hand and heart"; but 
that all she would accept from him was a carriage and 
six horses from the ro3^al stables.* 

When Louis XV. was seized with his last illness, 
Madame Pater hastened to Versailles and remained 
there until the death of the King, apparently in antici- 
pation that, in the event of his recoveiy, he would fall 
an easy victim to her persuasions. 

After the fatal teiTnination of the King^s illness had 
destroyed her hopes, she consoled herself by marrying 
the IMarquis de Cliampcenetz, Governor of the Tuile- 
ries, and became one of the leaders of the fashionable 
world. At the beginning of the Revolution she emi- 
grated, but returned during the Directory, and, for 
some time, appears to have taken an active share in 
Royalist intrigues. In one of these she was eventually 
detected, and exiled by Bonaparte. She died in Hol- 
land in 1806. 

At the time that Madame Pater was indulging in her 
fond dreams at Meudon, a general impression appears 
to have prevailed in well-informed circles that Louis 
XV. would sooner or later seek repose of conscience — 
to borrow INIercy's phrase — by a second marriage. 
This belief was due, in a great measure, to the sur- 
prising influence which Madame Louise, the Carmelite, 
had lately acquired over her royal father. By a singu- 
lar paradox, the princess in question, who, so long as 
she was at Court, had enjoyed not the least credit, had, 
since her retirement from the world, become a force to 
be reckoned with. The King paid her frequent visits, 
and was reported to be deeply moved by her exhorta- 
tions to repentance. 

LTrged on by Chistophe de Beaumont, the Archbishop 
of Paris, and the Chancellor, who believed that he de- 
* Souvenirs de Jeanne Etienne Despreaux, p. 10, et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 237 

tected in the King signs of remorse, and had decided 
that it might be more advisable for him to be on the 
side of the confessor than on that of the mistress, Ma- 
dame Louise returned to the project of Louis's mar- 
riage with the Archduchess EUzabeth of Austria, which 
had never been whohy abandoned, and when her father 
demurred to this, suggested that perhaps the widowed 
Princesse de Lamballe might serve equally well. 

Madame du Barry became seriously alarmed, and 
one day, when the King was on the point of starting 
for Saint-Denis to visit his daughter, threw herself at 
his feet, told him that she knew that her disgrace was 
decided upon, and that she would prefer to receive her 
dismissal from his own lips than to suffer the humilia- 
tion of receiving it from the base cabal which was 
conspiring to ruin her/ 

The project of the King's remarriage came to noth- 
ing, but the influence of the royal Carmelite over her 
father seemed to increase as Louis grew older, and 
towards the end of the year 1773 rumours of the 
favourite's approaching fall were rife. They were, 
however, without foundation, and the King, learning 

^ If we are to believe that amusing work, Les Pastes de Louis 
XV., Madame du Barry's friends advised her to persuade the 
Pope to annul her marriage with Guillaume du Barry, in order 
that she might herself be in a position to marry the King, and 
Terray drew up for her a petition to the Vatican, which, briefly 
put, was as follows : 

" Madame du Barry represents to his Holiness that, having but 
little knowledge of canonical rules, she was unaware at the time 
of the celebration of her marriage with the Comte Guillaume du 
Barry that it was not permissible to espouse the brother of a 
man with whom one had lived. She avows, with all the grief 
of a repentant soul, that she had had a weakness for the Comte 
Jean du Barry, her husband's brother ; that she had been, happily, 
warned in time of the incest she was about to commit, and that 
her enlightened conscience did not permit her to live with her 
new husband; that thus the crime had not yet been committed; 
and she implores his Holiness to consent to free her from an 
alliance so scandalous." 



238 MADAME DU BARRY 

what was reported, took an early opportunity of dis- 
proving it. On November 16, the marriage of the 
Comte d'Artois to Maria Theresa of Savoy, younger 
sister of the Comtesse de Provence, was celebrated. 
The ceremony was preceded by a banquet, which was 
understood to be confined to the Royal Family and 
Princes and Princesses of the Blood. To the general 
astonishment, however, Madame du Barry appeared, 
''radiant as the sun, and wearing five million livres 
worth of jewels on her person." A place was reserved 
for her immediately opposite the King, and it was re- 
marked that throughout the repast she seemed to have 
eyes for no one but his Majesty, who, in return, bent 
upon her many affectionate glances, ''et lui faisoit des 
mines remarquahlesf 'Tt is believed," continues the 
chronicler, *'that his Majesty was very pleased to 
thus give a denial to the rumours concerning the 
disgrace of this lady which were going about, while 
she evinced no less plainly her gratitude and profound 
respect."^ 

At the beginning of the year 1774, the last of her 
favour, Madame du Barry, encouraged by the fact that 
Marie Antoinette had of late ''abstained from morti- 
fying remarks" in reference to the countess, made 
another attempt to overcome the hostility of the Dau- 
phiness. A jeweller in Paris was offering for sale a 
pair of magnificent earrings, "formed of four dia- 
monds of extraordinary size and beauty," and valued 
at 700,000 livres. Aware of the princess's passion for 
jewellery, the favourite persuaded the Comte de 
Noailles to bring these earrings to the notice of Marie 
Antoinette and to say that "if her Royal Highness 
found them to her taste, she need not trouble herself 
about the price or the payment, as means would be 

^ Nouvelles a la main de la maison d'Harcourt, cited by M. 
Vatel. 



MADAME DU BARRY 239 

found to persuade the King to make her a present of 
them." 

In vain was the net spread; Marie Antoinette re- 
pHed simply that she had enough diamonds, and had 
no desire to increase her collection. 

Madame du Barry, unlike Madame de Pompadour, 
was not thin-skinned, and cared little or nothing for 
the libels and lampoons wherewith her enemies assailed 
her. The story goes that on one occasion the Lieuten- 
ant of Police came to her and said : ''Madame, we have 
just caught a rascal who has composed a scandalous 
song about you. What are we to do with him?" 
"Make him sing it, and then give him something to 
eat," answered the good-natured favourite, laughing. 
However, there is a limit even to the patience of the 
saintliest monk, as the long-suffering Major of the 
Bastille observed when he had that egregious impostor, 
M. Latude, under his care ; and, in the case of Madame 
du Barry, this was reached in the early weeks of 1774. 

There happened to be living in London at this time 
an adventurer from Burgundy named Theveneau de 
Morande, who, having got into trouble in his own 
country, had taken refuge in England. Here he found 
himself entirely without resources, but, being possessed 
of a lively imagination, a facile pen, and boundless 
impudence, soon hit upon a highly remunerative mode 
of earning a livelihood. This was to compose gross 
and scandalous libels about persons of exalted station, 
which were printed in England and Holland, and in- 
troduced clandestinely into France. Among other 
works, he had published, under the title of Le Gasetier' 
cuirasse (The Journalist in Armour), ou Anecdotes 
scandaleuses de la Cour de France, a collection of the 
most atrocious stories, which inspired such consterna- 
tion among his victims that many, including the Mar- 



240 MADAME DU BARRY 

quis de Marigny, Madame de Pompadour's brother, 
hastened to send money across the Channel, in order 
to secure immunity from further attacks. z 

Encouraged by his success, M. de Morande deter- 
mined to fly at still higher game. Accordingly, he 
wrote to Madame du Barry, enclosing the prospectus 
of a forthcoming work, in four octavo volumes, 
founded upon her life, and bearing the piquant title 
of Memoires secrets d'une femme publique, ou Essai 
sur les aventures de madame la comtesse Dub"^^"^ 
depuis son berceau jusqu'au lit d'honneur. The author 
intimated that if the subject of his biography preferred 
that the work should not appear, he would be willing 
to enter into negotiations for the sale of the copyright. 

The unfortunate favourite, who had already been 
outrageously libelled in Le Gazetier cuirasse, wherein 
it was asserted, among other charges, that she had 
founded a new Order at Court, to which only those 
women were to be admitted who had bestowed their 
favours on at least ten different men, was greatly 
alarmed, and hurried off to consult the King and 
d'Aiguillon, who applied to the English Govern- 
ment for Morande's extradition. 

The English Government answered that it was im- 
possible for them to comply with such a demand, as 
Morande's offence was not one which came within the 
scope of the extradition treaty; but, inasmuch as the 
person in question was "a pest to society and a plague 
to mankind," they would offer not the slightest ob- 
jection to his seizure and removal to France, provided 
that it could be done secretly and in such a way as not 
to wound the susceptibilities of the English public. 

The French Ministry thereupon sent a brigade of 
police-agents to London, with orders to capture Mo- 
rande and restore him to his native land, where the 
darkest cell and the heaviest irons to be found in Gal- 



MADAME DU BARRY 241 

banon awaited him. But Morande was prepared for 
them. He had received timely warning of the expe- 
dition against him. from a confederate in Paris, and 
had denounced it in the London journals, at the same 
time giving himself out as a political exile, whom his 
persecutors dared to follow even on to the sacred soil 
of liberty, thus violating the generous hospitality which 
the English people never failed to extend to the un- 
fortunate of all nationalities. 

This ingenious appeal for public sympathy was not 
made in vain; and when the French police-agents ar- 
rived in London, they had no need to search for their 
prey; for he was waiting to receive them, at the head 
of an infuriated mob, which fell upon them and would 
have thrown them into the Thames, had they not pru- 
dently sought safety in flight. 

After this fiasco, the French Government had re- 
course to negotiations, and sent over two ambassadors, 
named Bellanger and Preaudeau de Chenilly, to treat 
with Morande. The latter, however, refused to re- 
ceive them, posed before the English people in the 
character of an avenger of public morality, and has- 
tened on the publication of his work. 

Three thousand copies of the book had been printed 
and were on the point of being despatched to Holland 
and Germany, to be afterwards circulated throughout 
France, and Madame du Barry and Louis XV. were in 
despair, when La Borde, the King's valet-de-chamhre, 
suggested to his master to send over Beaumarchais, 
whose masterly conduct of his lawsuit against Goez- 
man had excited general admiration, though it had 
ruined him in fortune and credit. 

The famous dramatist was ready enough to em- 
brace such an opportunity of reinstating himself in 
the good graces of the King, and in March set out for 
London, under the name of Ronac, an anagram of 



242 MADAME DU BARRY 

his patronymic of Caron, to treat with the ''Journah'st 
in Armour" for the sale and suppression of the Me- 
moires secrets. 

^ More fortunate than MM. Bellanger and de Che- 
nilly, he succeeded in obtaining an interview with 
Morande, who gave him a copy of his book and the 
manuscript of another hbel, with which he intended to 
follow it up, and promised to suspend publication while 
Beaumarchais returned to Versailles to lay his demands 
before the King. 

After a good deal of haggling a bargain was struck, 
whereby M. Morande was to suppress his work and 
abstain from further attacks upon the reputation of 
Madame du Barry, and the French Government was 
to pay him 20,000 livres in cash and a pension of 4000 
livres, half of which sum was to revert to his wife — 
"a respectable Englishwoman, whom he treated abom- 
inably" — in the event of his death.'' 

The manuscript and the 3000 copies of the Me- 
moires secrets were then burned by Beaumarchais and 
Morande in an oven in the suburbs of London, and the 
dramatist returned to France to receive the reward of 
his successful diplomacy. But alas ! there was no re- 
ward forthcoming, not even poor Beaumarchais's ex- 
penses ; for when he reached Versailles, Louis XV. lay 
on his death-bed.^ 

' Some writers assert that the pension was revoked in the suc- 
ceeding reign, Louis XVI. refusing to be bound b}^ the acts of 
his grandfather. This, however, is an error. Morande's pension 
was an annuity duly secured, and all that the French Government 
did was to commute a portion of it at the recipient's own request. 

* Lomenie's Beaumarchais et son temps, i. 2y6, et seq. Dutens' 
Memoir es d'un voyagem qui se repose, ii. 39. 



CHAPTER XVII 

10UIS XV. was growing old; slowly but surely 
i his constitution, undermined by long years of 
debauchery, was breaking up. He had become 
obese and unwieldy; tO' get him on to his horse or 
intO' his carriage was now "quite an affair of State" ; 
his digestive organs were impaired ; he was compelled 
to dilute his wine with Vichy water, and his petits 
soupers had become Barmecide feasts, so far as he 
himself was concerned. ''I see that I am no longer 
young, and that I must put on the drag," said he one 
day to La Martiniere, his First Surgeon. "Sire," was 
the answer, "it would be wiser for you to unharness 
the horses." 

And with the decline of his physical powers, the 
King's mental faculties were failing too. His fits of 
ennui — a malady from which nearly all the Bourbons 
suffered to^ a greater or less degree — were becoming 
more frequent and more prolonged, and taxing all the 
ingenuity of Madame du Barry to combat successfully. 
In his correspondence with Maria Theresa, Mercy 
frequently refers to this incurable melancholy of Louis 
XV. : "The King is growing old, and from time to 
time seems to have regrets. He finds himself isolated, 
without aid or consolation from his children, without 
zeal, attachment, or fidelity from the bizarre assem- 
blage composing his Ministry, his society, his surround- 
ings.""" And again: "From time to time the King 
begins to make remarks concerning his age, his health,, 
^Letter of August 14, 1773. 
243 



244 MADAME DU BARRY 

and the frightful account that must one day be ren- 
dered to the Supreme Being for our employment of 
the life He has accorded to us in this world. These 
reflections, occasioned by the death of some persons of 
his own age, who died almost before his eyes,' have 
greatly alarmed those who retain the monarch in his 
present errors, and from that moment everybody has 
thought it his duty to conceal such events so far as 
possible."* 

The King's conscience, in short, was beginning to 
awaken; Holy Week, a period always dreaded by his 
mistresses, was becoming each year more dangerous, 
and those of 1773 and 1774 had reduced the super- 
stitious monarch to the most abject terror. Corrupt 
and sycophantic as so many of the Court clergy were, 
there had, happily, never been wanting honest and 
courageous ministers of the Gospel amongst them. 
The celebrated Jesuit preacher, Bourdaloue, had not 
hesitated to denounce the profligacy of le Grande 
Monarque in the most scathing terms; and now 
Bourdaloue had found two worthy successors in the 
persons of the Abbe de Beauvais and the Abbe 
Rousseau. "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be de- 
stroyed !" was the text of one of the former's sermons 
in April 1774; and Louis applied the threat of the 
prophet to himself and trembled.* 

*In November 1773, at one of the petifs soupers, the Marquis 
de Chauvelln fell dead actually at Louis* feet; shortly after- 
wards, the Abbe de la Ville, to whom the King was giving audi- 
ence, was seized with a fatal attack of apoplexy; and the 
Genoese Ambassador, Sorba, also died in a terribly sudden 



manner, 
3 



Letter of February 19, 1774. 
*In Holy Week of the previous year, the Abbe de Beauvais 
had preached a sermon in which the following passage is said 
to have occurred: " Solomon, satiated with voluptuousness, tired 
of having extinguished, in the endeavour to revive his withered 
senses, every sort of pleasure that surrounded the throne, ended 
by seeking one of a new kind in the vile dregs of public corrupt 



MADAME DU BARRY 245 

Madame du Barry, on her side, was scarcely less 
uneasy. The Almanach de Liege for that year had 
contained among its predictions one which announced 
that, in the month of April, "a great lady playing an 
important role at a foreign Court would cease to fill 
it," and, in dire alarm, she racked her brains to find 
means to divert the mind of her royal lover from- 
thoughts of death and judgment. 

On Tuesday, April 26, Louis XV. left Versailles tO' 
spend a few days at the Little Trianon, the pavilion 
recently constructed by the architect Gabriel. The fol- 
lowing morning, on rising, he felt unwell, complaining 
of pains in the head, shivering-fits, and giddiness. He 
refused, however, to countermand the hunt arranged 
for that day, and, in the hope that exercise might 
prove beneficial, decided to take part in the sport as 
usual. His caleche was accordingly ordered, and he 
set out for the meet, but, on arriving there, felt too 
ill to mount his horse, and followed the chase in his 
carriage, returning to Trianon about half-past five. 

During the day the headache from which Louis had 
suffered in the morning had become much worse, and 
Madame du Barry advised that one of his physicians 
should be summoned. To this, however, he refused 
to consent, declaring that it was merely a passing in- 
disposition, which a little medicine and a night's rest 
would cure, and spent the evening in the favourite's 
apartments, where he took some simple remedy. 

But the King passed a restless night, and in the 

morning was so much worse that Lemonnier, his First 

Physician, was sent for. 

Hon." M. Vatel, who discussfes this question at some length, with 
the view, apparently, of vindicating the character of the Jewish 
monarch, is of opinion that the Abbe de Beauvais never used the 
words imputed to him, as they are not to be found in his col- 
lected sermons. Perhaps, how'ever, as Mr. Douglas suggests, 
they were omitted by a timid editor. 



246 MADAME DU BARRY 

Lemonnier found his royal patient in a fever, but 
did not appear to think that there was any cause for 
alarm; and Madame du Barry, much reassured, de- 
cided, after a consultation with the Due d'Aumont, 
the First Gentleman of the Bedchamber in attendance 
on his Majesty, to keep the King at Trianon until he 
recovered, and tO' allow no hint of his illness to reach 
the Royal Family, who had remained at Versailles. 

Now it is probable that the favourite and d'Aumont, 
who' was devoted tO' her interests, acted merely from 
selfish motives, knowing full well that even the slightest 
indisposition was enough to arouse qualms of consci- 
ence in the superstitious monarch. Nevertheless it is 
now generally admitted that, had they been allowed 
to carry out their plan, the life of Louis XV. might 
have been saved, for, in his light and airy apartments 
at Trianon, with every one but Lemonnier, Madame 
du Barry, and his valet-de-chamhre excluded from his 
sick-room, he would have had an infinitely better chance 
of recovery than at Versailles, where unbending eti- 
quette demanded that not only his whole staff of medi- 
cal advisers, but every one who had the entree, should 
be admitted to the royal bedchamber, even though its 
unfortunate occupant were in extremis.^ 

However, ill news flies apace, and, in spite of the 
precautions of Madame du Barry and the duke, the 
state of the King was soon known at Versailles. The 
Royal Family did not dare to go to Trianon without 
a summons from his Majesty; but the Dauphin de- 
spatched La Martiniere, who had great influence over 
Louis and was permitted to speak his mind freely. 

La Martiniere did not love Madame du Barry, and 
was, therefore, unlike Lemonnier, but little inclined to 
forego what he conceived to be his duty out of def- 
erence to that lady's wishes. He was an honest man, 
® Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 320. 



MADAME DU BARRY 247 

6rusque but firm, and he resolved to persuade Louis to 
return to Versailles. 

Early in the afternoon of the 28th, he reached 
Trianon, saw the King at once, and represented to him 
that it was absolutely without precedent for a King of 
France to allow himself to be nursed anywhere save 
in his principal residence and with the whole Faculty 
standing round his bed ; and, in spite of the entreaties 
of the favourite, poor Louis, ever a slave to etiquette, 
yielded, and told La Martiniere to order his carriage 
to be got ready. The King entered it *in his rohe-de- 
chambre, and, on arriving at the chateau, waited in 
Madame Adelaide's apartments while his bed was 
being prepared. When, a little later, Marie Antoinette 
and the princesses presented themselves at the door of 
the royal bedchamber, his Majesty intimated that he 
desired to be alone, and they withdrew, leaving the 
invalid to the care of Madame du Barry, who entered 
by the private staircase ; and took her place by his side. 

The fever and the pains in the head increased in se- 
verity during the night; the King could not sleep, 
and at times his mind wandered. In the morning, 
Friday, April 29, Lemonnier and La Martiniere held 
a consultation, and decided that his Majesty must be 
bled. They asked that other doctors should be called 
in, and Louis, prompted by Madamx du Barry, named 
Lorry and Bordeu, the physicians of the favourite and 
. d'Aiguillon, while, at Lemonnier's request, Lassonne, 
the Dauphiness's physician, was also summoned. 

The bleeding did not produce the effect hoped for ; 
the fever continued to increase, and there could no 
longer be any doubt that the King was seriously ill. 
The doctors who had been sent for arrived about noon, 
and w^ere followed into the sick-room by all his Maj- 
esty's medical advisers — physicians, surgeons, and 
apothecaries — and also by a number of people who had 



248 MADAME DU BARRY 

the entree, and whom Madame du Barry and d'AIguil- 
Ion had up till then contrived to exclude. 

The King called upon each doctor in turn to come 
and feel his pulse, described his symptoms, and de- 
manded to know what was the nature of his illness ; a 
point upon which none of the learned gentlemen were 
able to satisfy him. They all looked exceedingly sol- 
emn, conferred together in whispers, shook their heads 
repeatedly, and, finally, decided that his Majesty must 
be bled again in the course of the afternoon, and a 
third time at night or the following morning, if the 
second bleeding failed to give him relief. 

This announcement alarmed the King. "I am then 
seriously ill," he exclaimed. *'A third bleeding will 
leave me very weak. Can it not be avoided ?" 

The Court was in a ferment of excitement when the 
decision of the doctors became known, and the enemies 
of the favourite and d'Aiguillon could not conceal their 
elation. A third bleeding meant the Sacraments and, 
with the Sacraments, confession and the solemn re- 
nunciation by the King of his mistress, as had been 
the case with Madame de Chateauroux at Metz, in 
1744.® It is true that on that occasion, so soon as the 
monarch recovered, Madame de Chateauroux was 
taken back into favour; but it was deemed very im- 
probable that, if Madame du Barry were once dis- 
missed, Louis would have the courage to break his 
word again. At sixty- four a man is less ready to incur 
the wrath of Heaven than when in the prime of life. 

On their side, the Du Barry party, alive to the 
danger which threatened them, used every effort to 
prevail upon the doctors to abandon the idea of a 
third bleeding. They succeeded, but only in a measure, 

^For a full account of Louis XV.'s illness at Metz, and the 
dismissal of Madame de Chateauroux, see the author's "Madame 
de Pompadour," pp. 11-19. 



MADAME DU BARRY 249 

as the Faculty, to satisfy its conscience, made the 
second bleeding unusually copious, and reduced the 
wretched King to the last stage of prostration. Nev- 
ertheless, the fever continued, and Bordeu went up to 
the apartments of the favourite, who had retired from 
the sick-room before the entry of the crowd of doctors 
and courtiers at midday, and told her that he feared 
the King was threatened with a long and dangerous 
illness. 

Towards five o'clock, Louis sent for hts children 
and kept them for half an hour round his bed, during 
which time, however, he never once addressed them. 
In the evening the Due d'Aumont wished to introduce 
Madame du Barry, but the doctors and the grand offi- 
cers of the Household opposed it energetical^, and he 
was compelled to give way. 

The Faculty was composed of fourteen persons — six 
physicians, five surgeons, and three apothecaries; but 
the King seemed to derive comfort from their number, 
and whenever he happened to observe that one of the 
doctors had left the room, requested that he should be 
brought back, "as if he imagined that, surrounded by 
so many satellites, no harm could happen to his 
Majesty.'' 

That evening the sick man was moved from his 
great State bed into a smaller one, for the sake of 
convenience. All at once, some one happening to ap- 
proach him with a light, observed red specks upon his 
forehead and cheeks. The doctors looked at one an- 
other in amazement; not one among them appears to 
have entertained the least suspicion that the King's 
illness could be small-pox, for Louis had had the dis- 
ease already in 1728, and it was believed that he was 
proof against further attacks."^ 

''Louis was commonly believed to have contracted the disease 
from a young girl of the neighbourhood, with whom he had had 



250 MADAME DU BARRY 

However, after they had recovered from their aston- 
ishment, the doctors seemed much reheved to find that 
all uncertainty was at an end, and assured the Royal 
Family that there was no cause for alarm, citing in- 
stances of persons of the King's age who had recov- 
ered from the disease. The Dauphin, the Comte de 
Provence, the Comte d'Artois, and their wives, on the 
advice of the doctors, decided to keep away from the 
sick-room; but Mesdames, although none of them had 
had small-pox, declared that their place was by their 
father's side, and that they intended to remain with 
him ; a resolution which does them much honour. The 
Court seemed to share the opinion of the Faculty that 
the chances were greatly in favour of the King's re- 
covery, and retired to rest, ''convinced that it was an 
affair of eight or nine days and of a little patience."^ 

Bordeu, however, thought otherwise, and when the 
Due de Liancourt reported to him the optimistic feeling 
which prevailed, shook his head and remarked that 
small-pox to a man of Louis's age and constitution was 
a terrible disease. 

The event justified his previsions. Next day, it be- 
came evident that the disease was developing in its 
most virulent form, and the doctors could not conceal 
their apprehensions. After much discussion, it had 
been decided not to inform the King of the nature of 
his illness, and he was accordingly told that he was 
suffering from a miliary fever. But, with his knowl- 

a " passade" : " une petite vachere," according to the Abbe Bau- 
deau; the daughter of the gardener of Louveciennes {Anec- 
dotes) ; the daughter of Montvallier, Madame du Barry's steward 
(Metra) ; "the once so buxom daughter of the gatekeeper" 
(Carlyle), and so forth; for the shapes of the damsel are pro- 
tean. There is, however, not a shred of evidence to support this 
story, and we prefer to believe Voltaire, who says that there was 
an epidemic of small-pox in the environs of Versailles, and the 
King fell a victim to the scourge in the ordinary way. 
^ Memoires du Baron de Besenval, i. 300. 



MADAME DU BARRY 251 

edge of diseases^ of which he had all his life taken a 
morbid pleasure in talking, the symptoms surprised 
him. **Were it not that I have had the small-pox," he 
exclaimed, ''I should believe that I was about to 
have it." 

Mesdmnes passed the day in the sick-room or in one 
of the adjoining cabinets, and assisted at Mass, which 
was said at noon, on a portable altar placed before the 
King's bed. They, with the Due de Noailles, the faith- 
ful Prince de Soubise, and the banker valet-de-chamhre 
La Borde, were probably the only persons in the room 
who cared for Louis for his own sake ; the rest, con- 
sumed with hatred and jealousy of one another, thought 
only of the political changes for which the administra- 
tion of the Sacraments would be the signal. Decency, 
of course, compelled them to dissimulate their feelings ; 
and many of those who appeared most affected by the 
condition of their sovereign were secretly rejoicing at 
the prospect of the fulfilment of their hopes. 

In Paris, where the affection of the people, so strik- 
ingly manifested during Louis's illness at Metz, had 
long since changed to hatred and contempt, there was 
not even a pretence of sorrow.^ Public prayers for 
the King's recovery were, of course, ordered ; but the 
churches and chapels were deserted. The shrine of 
Sainte-Genevieve was solemnly opened; but hardly a 
knee was bent before it." If people were observed to 

® A striking instance of the steady decline of Louis XV.'s 
popularity is afforded by comparing the number of Masses said 
on his behalf at Notre Dame, at the expense of private indi- 
viduals, during his three illnesses in 1744, 1757, and 1774. On 
the first occasion, no less than 6000 were said ; on the second, 
the number had fallen to 600; while in 1774 only three persons 
were found willing to pay for a Mass ! — Bingham's " Marriages 
of the Bourbons," ii. 421. 

^^ After the death of Louis XV., the Abbe de Sainte-Genevieve 
was rallied by some friends, who said that his saint had lost all 
her power. He replied : " Well, Messieurs, what reproach have 
you to address to her? Is he not dead?" 



252 MADAME DU BARRY 

whisper anxiously together, if apprehension were re- 
marked on any face, its cause was not the gravity of 
their sovereign's condition, but lest Death should, after 
all, be deprived of his prey. Louis le Bien-aime, as 
he himself had once bitterly remarked, had become 
Louis le Bien-hdi, and all hearts waited impatiently 
for the event which was to open that new regime on 
which so many hopes were founded. 

In the evening. La Borde, having on some pretext 
contrived tO' get every one out of the room, brought in 
Madame du Barry and conducted her to the King's 
bedside; but Louis was in too much pain to show any 
pleasure at the sight of his mistress, and, after re- 
maining for a short while, she withdrew.^ 

On the Sunday, May i, the King, who' had passed 
a terrible night, was so weak that it was the general 
impression that he could not survive more than a 
couple of days, and the battle between the " Barriens " 
and ''Anti-Barriens " over the question of the Sacra- 
ments began in earnest. By a singular inversion of the 
usual order of things, it was the patrons of the philos- 
ophers who cried out against the scandal of allowing 
the King to remain longer in a state of sin, while the 
devots declared that confession and absolution would 
effectually destroy any chance of recovery his Majesty 
might have, as everything depended on concealing his 
true condition from him. 

In the midst of this unseemly wrangle, the news ar- 
rived that Christophe de Beaumont, the . Archbishop of 
Paris, had announced his intention of visiting the 
King on the following day. No one doubted that the 
object of the prelate's visit was to exhort his Majesty 
to repentance and confession, and the Du Barry party, 
in great alarm, held a council of war, which was at- 

^ Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Bar- 
riere), i. 303. 



MADAME DU BARRY 253 

tended by the favourite, d'Aiguillon, Richelieu, and his 
son, the Due de Fronsac. After some discussion, it 
was decided that, as it was impossible to keep the arch- 
bishop away from the King, the only course to adopt 
was to ensure that the Due d' Orleans, first prince of the 
blood, should be in the room all the time; that the 
visit should be one of courtesy only, and that no men- 
tion should be made of the Sacraments. Madame 
Adelaide, whom the doctors of the favourite's faction 
had solemnly assured that the question of Eternity was 
premature, and that it would be her father's death- 
blow, joined the conspiracy. 

At eleven o'clock the next morning, the archbishop, 
in his violet robes, presented himself at the door of 
the King's ante-chamber, where he was met by Riche- 
lieu, who led him into the Cabinet du Conseil, made 
him sit down by his side, and spoke to him "with 
great vehemence and animated gestures." 

Now, the archbishop was an honest and pious, if 
narrow-minded man, who had suffered exile and per- 
secution for the truth's sake, or rather for that of the 
Bull Unigenitus. He deplored the irregularities of the 
King, but he was well aware of the services which 
Madame du Barry had rendered to the party of which 
he was the ecclesiastical head by the overthrow of Choi- 
seul, the elevation of d'Aiguillon, and the destruction 
of the Parliaments, He had come to insist on the dis- 
missal of the favourite, as a preliminary to confession 
and the Sacraments, to the saving of the King's soul ; 
but when Richelieu, with brutal frankness, pointed out 
to him that the saving of the King's soul meant the 
return of Choiseul and the old Parliament, the triumph, 
in fact, of the enemies of the Church, the archbishop 
began to wonder whether his Most Christian Majesty's 
salvation was indeed worth so great a sacrifice. 

While he hesitated "between his zeal and his con- 



254 MADAME DU BARRY 

science," the Due d'Aumont came to announce that the 
King awaited him. The prelate rose and made his way 
into the sick-room, where the first object his eyes rested 
upon was a lady perched on the royal bed. The lady 
was, of course, Madame du Barry, who, however, fled 
at his approach, leaving him alone with the King and 
the Due d'Orleans, charged by Madame Adelaide to 
take care that M. de Beaumont did not say anything 
which might alarm her father. 

The audience, as might be expected, had no result; 
the archbishop remained a few minutes, condoling with 
his Majesty on the unfortunate event which had tem- 
porarily deprived his loving subjects of the joy of 
seeing him amongst them, and then went back to Paris, 
without saying a single word about confession;" while 
the King, inferring from the prelate's avoidance of 
this unpleasant subject, that the doctors could not con- 
sider him in any danger, sent at once for Madame du 
Barry, "wept with joy, and covered her hands w!ith 
kisses." 

The "Anti-Barriens," highly indignant at the weak- 
ness of the archbishop, now fell back upon the Grand 
Almoner, the Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon. Incited 
by them, the Bishop of Carcassonne, an honest man, 
who sincerely desired his sovereign's salvation, brand- 
ishing his pectoral cross before the eyes of the cardinal, 
summoned him, in the name of that cross, to do his 
duty and propose the Sacraments to the King. 

The Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon, who was an ex- 
ceedingly supple and cautious. ecclesiastic, felt himself 
placed in a most embarrassing position. If he declined 
to exhort the King to repentance, and Louis were to 
die without having received absolution, he would be 
ruined. On the other hand, if he did his duty, and the 

" The archbishop returned the next day, and again saw the 
King, but whether he spoke of confession is uncertain. 



MADAME DU BARRY 255 

King were to recover, his disgrace would be equally 
certain. He, therefore, determined to steer a middle 
course, and replied that, as the doctors were opposed 
to anything which might tend to alarm the King, he 
could not propose to administer the Sacraments openly, 
but that he would avail himself of the first opportunity 
of putting his Majesty in the right way. He then went 
to visit the King, but conversed with him in so low 
a tone that no one else could hear what was said. In 
this way, the astute cardinal was able to give his own 
version of what passed between Louis and himself. 

That day a slight improvement was observed in the 
royal patient's condition, in consequence of which a 
number of courtiers who, in the belief that his Majesty 
was doomed, had for the last day or twO' abstained 
from visiting the favourite, hastened to atone for their 
neglect. But during the night the disease took an 
alarming turn, and the following morning the doctors, 
who had hitherto issued relatively satisfactory reports, 
published a bulletin announcing that the King had been 
delirious. D'Aiguillon, in a violent passion, rushed 
into the ante-chamber and began to upbraid the doctors 
with their indiscretion in so loud a tone that Louis 
sent to learn what was the matter. When the Minister 
went to visit him soon afterwards, he inquired very 
tenderly after Madame du Barry, and expressed a de- 
sire to see her; and it was arranged that La Borde 
should bring the countess to the sick-room in the 
evening. 

But before the time for the favourite's visit arrived, 
an event of great importance had taken place: the 
King had ascertained the disease from which he was 
suffering. He had, it appeared, questioned La Mar- 
tiniere, and the latter, disgusted with the conduct of 
his colleagues, had confirmed his suspicions. 

Li an agony of terror, the conscience-stricken King 



256 MADAME DU BARRY 

at once resolved to purchase absolution by the dis- 
missal, or rather the apparent dismissal, of his mis- 
tress ; and when, according to arrangement, La Borde 
brought in the favourite, he called her to his bedside 
and said: "Madame, I am very ill; I knov^ what I 
must do; I do not wish to have a repetition of the 
scandal that took place at Metz. We must part. Go 
to Rueil, to the Due d'Aiguillon's chateau; await my 
orders there, and be assured that I shall always enter- 
tain for you the most tender affection.'"^' 

Madame du Barry, who had expected a very dif- 
ferent reception, left the room dissolved in tears, con- 
soling herself, however, with the reflection that Rueil 
was but two leagues from Versailles, and that such a 
very modified form of exile probably implied a speedy 
recall in the event of the King's recovery. 

At four o'clock the following afternoon, Tuesday, 
May 5, a carriage stopped under the northern arcade 
of the chateau. Madame du Barry entered it, ac- 
companied by her sister-in-law. Mademoiselle "Chon," 
and the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and departed from the 
scene of her triumphs, which she was fated never to 
revisit. 

There was, of course, great excitement at Court 
when it became known that the favourite had left Ver- 
sailles ; but the joy of the "Anti-Barriens" was some- 
what marred by the knowledge that, if the King hap- 
pened to change his mind, a courier and a pair of fast 
horses could bring her back within an hour. 

It was believed that the Sacraments would be ad- 
ministered that same evening, but the enemies of the 
favourite were doomed to disappointment. Towards 
six o'clock, the King called La Borde and bade him 
fetch Madame du Barry. 

"There are several versions of Louis's farewell speech to 
Madame du Barry; we have followed Besenval. 



MADAME DU BARRY 257 

*'Sire, she has gone," answered the valet-de- 
chamhre. 

"Whither has she gone?" 

"To Rueil, Sire." 

"Ah ! already !" And the sick man seemed distressed 
at finding that he had been so quickly taken at his 
word. 

Shortly afterwards he summoned d'Aiguillon, and 
inquired if he had been to Rueil ; all of which showed 
plainly that his thoughts were occupied far more by 
his mistress than by his confessor; that the lady's de- 
parture was merely a precautionary measure, and that 
she would be recalled the moment the illness of her 
royal lover took a decided turn for the better.^* 

Later in the evening there was a disgraceful scene 
in the ante-chamber. The cure of Versailles announced 
his intention of entering the sick-room to exhort the 
King to place himself in a state of grace without 
further delay, upon which the Due de Fronsac threat- 
ened to throw him out of the window if he dared even 
to mention the word "confession" in his Majesty's 
hearing. "If I am not killed, I shall return by the 
door," replied the priest, "for it is my duty." How- 
ever, the attitude of the duke was so threatening that 
the cure eventually decided to remain silent. 

There was no change in Louis' condition the follow- 
ing day, but during the night of the 6th to 7th he had 
a relapse, and ordered the Due de Duras to summon 
his confessor, the Abbe Maudoux, an honest man, who 
was also the directeur of Marie Antoinette. The duke, 
a bitter enemy of d'Aiguillon, obeyed the order with 
alacrity, and soon returned with the abbe, who re- 
mained with the King a quarter of an hour. 

When the confessor left, Louis declared his inten- 

^^ Memoir es inedits du Due de Croy, cited by M. de Nolhac in 
Marie- Antoinette Dauphine, p. 323. 



258 MADAME DU BARRY 

tion of receiving the Sacrament on the morrow. Then 
he sent for d'Aiguillon, to whom he confided that the 
abbe had refused to give him absolution so long as 
Madame du Barry was anywhere in the neighbour- 
hood; that he had, therefore, decided to send her to 
Richelieu's chateau at Chinon in Touraine, and desired 
that he would convey his commands to the countess. 
D'Aiguillon, who, on the principle that vv^hile there is 
life there is hope, was determined not to abandon the 
struggle, assured the King that there must be some 
mistake, and, instead of sending Madame du Barry to 
Chinon, hurried off to the Cardinal de la Roche-Ay- 
mon and the Abbe Maudoux, to endeavour to persuade 
them to administer the Sacraments unconditionally. 
He met, as might be expected, with a good deal of op- 
position from the latter; but the cardinal was com- 
placent enough, and, in the end, matters were settled as 
the Minister desired. 

At six o'clock the next morning, preceded by the 
clergy of the parish and the chapel, surrounded by 
bishops and followed by the Dauphin and his brothers, 
the Princes and Princesses of the Blood, the grand 
officers of the Crown, the Ministers and Secretaries of 
State, and nearly the whole of the Court, all with 
lighted tapers in their hands, the Holy Sacrament is 
brought in solemn state to the apartments of the dying 
King. The clergy, with Mesdames and the princes, 
enter the royal bedchamber, the rest of the cortege re- 
mains in the adjoining cabinets. The Cardinal de la 
Roche- Aymon delivers a short exhortation to the King, 
which is quite inaudible, and then administers the 
Sacrament. 

But the ceremony is not yet over. As the cardinal 
turns away, the Abbe Maudoux, "with anxious, acid- 
ulent face," plucks him by the sleeve and whispers in 
his ear ; upon which the prelate comes to the door, and 



MADAME DU BARRY 259 

there repeats the formula of repentance drawn up by 
the Archbishop of Paris, the bishops, and the con- 
fessor : 

"Messieurs, the King charges me to inform you 
that he asks pardon of God for having offended Him 
and for the scandal he has given his people; that if 
God restores him to health, he will occupy himself with 
the maintenance of religion and the welfare of his 
people." 

Two voices break the silence which follows : one is 
old Richelieu's, growling out some uncomplimentary 
reference to the Grand Almoner, which Besenval, who 
records the incident, is too modest to repeat ; the other 
is that of the King, who has listened attentively to the 
declaration of his penitence, and now murmurs : "I 
should have wished for sufficient strength to say it 
myself." 

From that moment the intrigues ceased; and all, 
save those whose duties compelled them to remain, fled 
from the sick-room, the infection from which was so 
terrible that over fifty persons in the chateau are said 
to have contracted the disease and ten to have died. 
Hour by hour the King grew worse. On May 9, two 
days after the first religious ceremony, the second, 
the administration of Extreme Unction, took place, 
and on the following afternoon, at a quarter-past 
three, the Due de Bouillon, the Grand Chamberlain, 
appeared at the door of the CEil-de-Boeuf and made 
the announcement which had not been heard for fifty- 
nine years, and was not to be heard again until the 
death of Louis XVUL, half a century later: 

"Messieurs, le Roi est mort. Vive le RoiT 

The body of the King, which had been hastily en- 
closed in two leaden coffins, remained in the chamber 
Memoirs— 9 Vol. 2 



26o MADAME DU BARRY 

of death, guarded only by a few priests, until the eve- 
ning of the 1 2th, when it was conveyed to Saint- 
Denis, "the funeral resembling rather the removal of a 
load one is anxious to get rid of than the last duties 
rendered to a monarch." The coffin was placed in a 
large carriage covered with a pall of black velvet, em- 
bossed with gold ; another carriage contained the Dues 
d'Aumont and d'Ayen; a third, the Grand Almoner 
and the cure of Versailles. All three carriages were 
those which the King had used to take him to the chase, 
and it had not been deemed necessary to drape them, 
according to custom, nor even to caparison the horses 
in black. The cortege was very simple, consisting 
merely of a score of mounted pages and fifty Gardes- 
du-Corps.^^ The faithful Soubise also followed the 
remains of the man from whom he had received so 
many favours, and was the only genuine mourner 
present. 

The funeral procession left Versailles, at a trot, at 
half-past seven, and arrived at Saint-Denis soon after 
eleven. Among his subjects all feeling of respect 
and affection for the King had long ceased, and coarse 
laughter and ribald jests greeted the cortege as it 
passed by. In the streets of Versailles, the people 
cried, ''Tdiaut! Tdiautr imitating the tone in which 
the King had been accustomed to pronounce the word, 
while at Saint-Denis there were shouts of ''Voila le 
plaisir des dames! Voild le plaisir!"^^ 

^^ It is not gen'erally known that by his will, bearing date 
January 6, 1770, Louis XV. had forbidden all great ceremonies 
at his funeral, and directed that his body might be conveyed to 
Saint-Denis " in the most simple manner that may be." It is 
doubtful, however, if, under ordinary circumstances, his wishes 
would have been so literally observed. 

" Chronique de I'Ahhe Baudeau, Revue retrospective, 1834, vol. 
iii. p. 42. Too much significance ought not, perhaps, to be at- 
tached to these demonstrations, for much the same had been wit- 
nessed at the funeral of le Grand Monarque. It was the oppres- 



Mx\DAME DU BARRY 261 

The body of the King was received by the Bene- 
dictines, accompanied by the clergy of the parish. At 
the door of the abbey, the Bishop of Senlis presented 
the body to the prior and pronounced some words in 
eulogy of the deceased monarch. The prior replied in 
a similar strain; then the coffin was lowered into the 
vaults, and the fifteenth Louis was left to sleep with his 
fathers — until the Revolution. 

sive taxation, not the King's moral character, that his subjects 
resented. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

UNDER date May 13, 1774, Hardy writes in his 
Journal: "I am informed that the Comtesse du 
Barry left the village of Rueil last evening, 
in virtue of a lettre-de-cachet, for the Abbey of Pont- 
aux-Dames . . . under the strictest prohibition either 
to see or to write to any one. She was seen in a coach 
drawn by six horses, followed by a second carriage 
containing two persons, one of whom was an exempt 
(inspector of police)." 

The lettre-de-cachet mentioned by Hardy, banishing 
Madame du Barry to the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, 
in Brie, has been generally attributed to Louis XVI., 
spurred on by Marie Antoinette; and M. Paul Gaulot, 
in his interesting work, "Love and Lovers of the Past," 
severely criticises the conduct of the new King, and 
declares that it was nothing less than an insult to the 
memory of his grandfather. 

The indefatigable M. Vatel, however, in the course 
of his researches, had occasion to examine the Registre 
des Ordres du Roi, then preserved in the Archives of 
the Prefecture of Police, and found there the following 

entries : 

The 9th of the month of May 1774- 
Note of the Minister. 

The sieur Comte du Barry 



The dame Comtesse du Barry 



To be taken to the Chateau of 

Vinc'ennes. 
To be taken to the Abbey of 

Pont-aux-Dames. 



Now, on May 9, Louis XV. was still alive — ^lie did not 
die till the afternoon of the loth — and there is no rea- 

262 



MADAME DU BARRY 263 

son to believe that the official who made the entries 
committed an error in transcribing the date, as the 
register was made up each day, and the entries in 
question were preceded and followed by other entries 
also dated the 9th. Nor is it at all probable that the 
then Dauphin, foreseeing the death of his grandfather, 
should have taken upon himself to order the arrest and 
banishment of the favourite, as, on the advice of Marie 
Antoinette, he had declined to receive the Ministers or 
give any orders whatever during Louis XV.'s illness/ 

It follows, then, that the order must have come from 
the late King, and this is M. Vatel's explanation : 

On the 8th, the day after he had received the 
Viaticum^ there was a slight improvement in the King's 
condition; but on the 9th he was much worse, and 
Extreme Unction was administered. It was then that 
he resolved on the complete sacrifice of his mistress, 
and also' of the chief participator in the scandal, "in 
the belief, perhaps, that he would thereby disarm the 
wrath of Heaven and escape the death which threatened 
him."' 

M. Vatel's explanation is quite consistent with the 
singular religion of the monarch, who had the most im- 
plicit belief in the efficacy of certain devotional prac- 
tices, prayers of forty hours, the opening of the shrine 
of Sainte-Genevieve, and so forth, who was accustomed 
to rise from the side of Madame de Mailly in order to 
perform his orisons, and who, if Besenval is to be be- 
lieved, used even to pray with his victims of the Parc- 
aux-Cerfs that they might preserve their orthodoxy; 
and the fact that, on the day before his death, Louis 
had an interview with d'Aiguillon and gave him certain 
instructions in a low voice removes, we think, all doubt 
about the matter. 

* M. de Nolhac's Marie-Antoinette Dauphine, p. 315. 
^ Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 334, et seq. 



264 MADAME DU BARRY 

The name of Jean du Barry did not go to swell the 
roll of distinguished persons who had been incarcerated 
in the Chateau of Vincennes."* No sooner did that 
crafty adventurer learn that his "frerof (little 
brother), as he had the impertinence to style Louis 
XV., was in extremis, than he went to a friend named 
Goys, a famous wit, and asked what he advised him to 
do. " Valuables and post-horses," was the laconic re- 
ply; and when the ''Roue" inquired if he had no bet- 
ter counsel to give him than that, answered that per- 
haps it would be wiser to make sure of the post-horses 
before troubling about the valuables. 

The "count" followed his friend's advice, and when 
the oAicers of the law came to his house to apprehend 
him, he was well on his way to the Swiss frontier, 
leaving his mistresses and his numerous creditors to 
bewail his departure. 

The new King lost no time in sending the other 
members of the Du Barry family after their chief. 
"The creature has been placed in a convent," writes 
Marie Antoinette to her mother on May 14, "and all 
who bear this scandalous name have been driven from 
the Court." Such, indeed, had been the case. On 
May 12, the "Vicomte" Adolphe and his wife each re- 
ceived a lettre-de-cacket, informing them that the 
Court was henceforth forbidden ground. The order 
sent to the viscountess was couched in the following 

terms: 

"Versailles, 12th of May, 1774. 

** I trust, Madame, that you will not doubt all the 
reluctance that I feel in being obliged to announce to 
you a prohibition to appear at Court ; but I am obliged 
to execute the orders of the King, who charges me to 
inform you that his intention is that you do not present 
yourself there until a fresh order from him. His 
Majesty, at the same time, is willing to permit you to 



MADAME DU BARRY 265 

visit your aunt at the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, and 
I am, in consequence, writing to the abbess, in order 
that you may experience no difficulty. You will be 
kind enough to acknowledge the receipt of this letter 
by the bearer thereof, so that I may be able to justify 
to his Majesty the execution of his orders. 

*'I have the honour to be, with respect, Madame, 
your very humble and very obedient servant, 

"The Due DE Lavrilliere/'' 

The so-called Marquis du Barry and his consort 
shared the fate of the viscount and viscountess, the 
marchioness being likewise accorded permission to 
visit the favourite at Pont-aux-Dames, though neither 
of the ladies would appear to have availed themselves 
of the privilege. Elie and his wife, indeed, were anx- 
ious to dissociate themselves from the odium attaching 
to all who' bore the "scandalous name," and, three 
months later, solicited and obtained permission to drop 
it and assume that of Conty d'Hargicourt, the uncle of 
the marchioness. 

'We give this letter in full, as it has been the subject of a 
singular misconception. Many years after it was written it fell 
into the hands of a collector of autographs, a certain M. Leber, 
who, in his catalogue, described it as " A rare and curious 
document, being the original lettre-de-cachet sent to Madame du 
Barry," and added the interesting information, culled from the 
anecdotists, that, on receiving it, the fallen favourite exclaimed, 

" in the way that was usual with her," " A fine reign that 

commences with a lettre-de-cachet!" In cours'e of time, M. 
Leb'er's collection passed into the possession of the Municipal 
Library of Rouen, where the letter was seen by the brothers De 
Goncourt. These distinguished writers did not, apparently, make 
the least attempt to verify M. Leber's statement; and, in con- 
sequence, we find it repeated in their Les Mattresses de Louis 
XV., and again in their La Du Barry, wherein they also assert 
that the aunt of Madame du Barry mentioned in the letter as 
living in retirement at Pont-aux-Dames "was without doubt 
Madame de Quantigny, her mother's sister." 

Now, as M. Vatel and Mr. Douglas point out, if the Goncourts 
had exercised any care in reading the letter, they could hardly 



266 MADAME DU BARRY 

The Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, for which the fallen 
favourite was now compelled to exchange the gilded 
salons of Versailles, was a convent of the Benedictine 
Order, situated some two leagues to the south-west of 
Meaux. It was a very ancient house, having been 
founded by Hughes de Chatillon, son of a Comte de 
Saint-Pol, in the year 1225, and had been famous for 
a long line of illustrious abbesses. At one time a very 
wealthy community, it had now fallen on somewhat 
evil days, and the vast buildings were in a sadly dilapi- 
dated state. 

The nuns numbered fifty, and wore the costume of 
the Bernardines — white woolen wimple and gown, 
black veil, and long scapulary of the same colour de- 
scending to the feet. The regulations, though not aus- 
tere, were strict, and none of the laxity of morals 
which prevailed in so many convents at this period was 
to be found at Pont-aux-Dames ; for which reason it 
was occasionally used as a kind of prison for ladies 
who had been so unfortunate as to incur the royal dis- 
pleasure. 

We may here remark that there was nothing shame- 
ful or humiliating in a detention of this kind. For a 
woman, confinement in a convent was very much the 
same thing as imprisonment in the towers of the Bas- 
tille or Vincennes for one of the opposite sex, and 

have failed to notice three clear proofs that this lettre-de-cachet 
could not have been the one sent to the favourite : in the first 
place, it is addressed to the viscountess and not to the countess ; 
in the second, there is no evidence that Madame de Quantigny, 
or any aunt of Madame du Barry, was ev'er at Pont-aux-Dames ; 
and in the third, the lady's difficulty was not to get to Pont-aux- 
Dames, but to get away from there. 

The error into which the Goncourts fell, however, singular as 
it is, is not nearly so extraordinary as their confusion of 
Madame du Barry's lover, the Due de Cosse-Brissac, with his 
father, the Marechal de Cosse-Brissac, an old gentleman of some 
four-score summers, to which we shall have occasion to refer 
presently. 



MADAME DU BARRY 267 

many of the greatest ladies in the land had at different 
times suffered the same fate as Madame du Barry. 

We can imagine the impression which the first sight 
of this grim old convent, with its crumbling walls, 
must have made upon the ex-favourite accustomed to 
the splendours of Versailles. ''Oh, how tristeT she 
cried, bursting into tears. " And it is to a place like 
this that they send me !" 

It is related that on her arrival she was conducted to 
the refectory, to wait whilst her room was being pre- 
pared ; and that the good sisters, impelled by a kind of 
morbid fascination, came one by one to peep at her. 
They did not dare to look directly upon the face of so 
terrible a sinner, but regarded its reflection in a mirror 
which was opposite to her, ''expecting tO' see appear 
therein the features of a demon." What was their 
astonishment, however, to perceive a sweet-faced 
young woman, who might well have stood to one of 
the great painters of old time as the model for a saint, 
and whose woebegone expression and tearful blue 
eyes touched every heart with compassion ! 

The Abbey of Point-aux-Dames was razed to the 
ground during the Revolution, and there is not even 
a plan of it in existence; but M. Vatel, who visited 
the spot some thirty years ago and questioned the vil- 
lagers, learned that several of them had heard their 
grandparents speak of Madame du Barry, who, it 
would appear, was lodged in the inner quadrangle of 
the building, in a bare room with whitewashed walls. 

At first, the lady's confinement was somewhat rig- 
orous; but her early experiences of conventual life at 
Sainte-Aure stood her in good stead, and she soon be- 
came reconciled to an existence with which she was 
already familiar, and won golden opinions not only 
from the abbess, Madame de la Roche-Fontenille, who' 
had been by no means predisposed in her favour, but 



268 MADAME DU BARRY 

from the whole community. "La Du Barry is very 
contented in her convent," writes the Abbe Baudeau 
on May 25 ; "the nuns are enchanted with her ; she 
loads them with little presents and will, perhaps, end 
by making them very sprightly."* Nor was she alto- 
gether out of touch with the outside world, for she 
was permitted to receive letters on business matters; 
and Desfontaines,^ her steward Montvallier's secretary, 
took advantage of this concession to write long and 
frequent letters, giving her an account of everything 
that was likely to interest her. 

The contagious nature of the disease to which Louis 
XV. had fallen a victim had prevented the usual me- 
morial services being held at the time of his death. His 
successor, however, had no intention of allowing them 
to be abandoned, and, in due course, every church and 
chapel from Dunkerque to the Pyrenees resounded 
with eulogies of the deceased monarch." The Abbey 
of Pont-aux-Dames conformed to the general practice, 
and Madame du Barry had, no doubt, the satisfaction 
of hearing some glib ecclesiastic deliver an eloquent 
appreciation of the virtues of the Well-beloved in the 
chapel of the convent. "Strange contrast!" remarks 
M. Vatel. "Louis XV. elevated to the Pantheon of re- 
ligion and history, while Jeanne Vaubernier, his last 

*Chronique de I'Ahhe Bandeau: Revue retrospective, 1834, vol. 
iii. p. 56. 

'^Frangois Guillaume Fougues-Deshayes (1733-1825), better 
known under the name of Desfontalnes de la Vallee. In later 
years, he became a prolific dramatist, author of La Bergere des 
Alpes and other plays. 

®The higher clergy vied with one another in adulation and 
baseness. To read their sermons one would imagine Louis XV. 
to have been an all-conquering monarch, of unblemished virtue, 
who had died at the height of his glory. " I will not talk," said 
the Bishop of Arras in his funeral oration, " of the great achieve- 
ments of this mighty King, his glory, his successes, his victories. 
A prince so dear to human hearts must have been according to 



MADAME DU BARRY 269 

mistress, was undergoing, for the same deeds, the 
pubHc penance of confinement in a cloister!" 

Gradually, the restrictions imposed upon Madame 
du Barry were relaxed ; she was allowed tO' take walks 
in the neighbourhood ; to send for her chef and several 
of her servants \ and her steward, her banker, and Au- 
bert, the Court jeweller, obtained permission to visit 
her. Now that the lady no longer had the Treasury 
to draw upon, her creditors were becoming clamorous, 
and we, accordingly, find her instructing Aubert to 
sell her j^arure of diamonds, composed of "a stomacher, 
epaulettes, four rows for the waist, and a knot to 
loop up the skirt," and another panire of rubies and 
diamonds : collar, pendant, and earrings. The reserve 
price placed upon the first was 450,000 livres, and on 
the second 150,000, and the money was to be devoted 
to the payment of her debts. 

The ex-favourite's financial embarrassments were, 
indeed, at this period, a constant source of annoyance 
to her, and she was, moreover, apprehensive that Louis 
XVI., entirely dominated as he was by Marie Antoi- 
nette and Mesdames, might take into his head to con- 
fiscate the gifts she had received from the late King 
and reduce her to poverty. She was, therefore, nat- 
urally anxious to recover her liberty, ''pour solliciter 
ses aif aires/' according to the phrase then in vogue, 

God's heart." There were, however, a few honourable excep- 
tions, and the sale of the Bishop of Alais's sermon, wherein he 
had spoken of the evil example which the late King had set his 
people and had besought his successor to regard the laws of 
God, was forbidden by the Government. 

' JHardy says that Madame du Barry had twenty servants with 
her at Pont-aux-Dames, but this is, no doubt, an exaggeration. 
The same chronicler also reports that her architect, Ledoux, had 
built for her a new wing to the abbey, " where she might lodge 
more commodiously." Another absurd rumour credited the 
Prince de Ligne with having scaled the walls of the convent in 
order to visit the fair prisoner. 



270 MADAME DU BARRY 

and, in August, wrote to La Vrilliere, pleading the 
convent life was unsuited to her constitution. 

La Vrilliere returned a courteous answer, express- 
ing his profound regret at learning that her health was 
not all that could be desired, and informing her that 
the King had the matter under his consideration, which 
was equivalent to a refusal ; and a similar fate awaited 
an application from, the Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames, 
on her charge's behalf, some three months later. 

However, the countess's detention was now drawing 
to a close, and, on March 24, 1775, the Nouvelles a la 
main announce : "Madame du Barry has permission to 
leave the Convent O'f Pont-aux-Dames. She takes 
walks in the environs, but returns to the abbey to sleep. 
There is a rumor that she is about to purchase an 
estate." 

The announcement was correct. Permission to leave 
Pont-aux-Dames had been accorded the ex- favourite 
on condition that she did not take up her residence 
within ten leagues of the Court of Paris; and, on April 
9, she purchased, from a certain Sieur Sauvage, the 
chateau and estate of Saint-Vrain, situated in what is 
now the Department of Seine-et-Oise, two leagues 
from Arpajon, and about twice that distance from 
Corbeil. 

This property had formerly belonged to Francois 
Pierre de la Garde, younger son of the old lady with 
whom its new owner had lived for a short time as 
demoiselle de conipagnie, or rather to his wife, a 
Mademoiselle Duval de Lepinay, and it is probable 
that the countess had visited it some seventeen years 
previously. The chateau was in the style of Henry 
IV. or Louis XHL, with a turret at each corner, and 
was surrounded by a moat. The estate comprised 
about one hundred and fifty acres. The price paid by 
Madame du Barry was 200,000 livres, and she gave a 



MADAME DU BARRY 271 

further 15,000 livres for the furniture of the chateau. 
The whole of the countess's immense staff of servants, 
not one of whom had been discharged, in spite of their 
mistress's fallen fortunes, was brought to Saint- Vrain ; 
Mademoiselle "Chon" du Barry and her sister fol- 
lowed. 

An old inhabitant of Saint- Vrain, interviewed by 
M. Vatel, gave him some interesting details about 
Madame du Barry's life there, which, it appears, he 
had heard from his mother : 

"There was a great deal of entertaining at the 
chateau; they gave balls, receptions, and evening 
parties. 

"At the same time, Madame du Barry made distri- 
butions of bread, meat, and wood to the poor; all the 
unfortunate received assistance, or rather there were 
no longer any fortunate. To one she sent something 
for the pot; to another, if it was a woman lying-in, for 
example, soup, linen, caps for the child, and so forth. 
Her waiting-women brought to Saint-Vrain her cast- 
off clothing, in which she dressed up all the little girls. 
Often she made the people of the village dance in her 
park. 

"She was much regretted. 

"As to her appearance, I can tell you nothing. 
Every one knows that she v/as a beautiful woman. I 
only remember one thing that my mother told me. She 
had a black paroquet, which always cried out when he 
caught sight of her: 'La voila la belle comtessef ^'^ 

In the following September, Madame du Barry pur- 
chased for Madame Rangon, who had left the Convent 
de Sainte-Elizabeth about the same time as her 
daughter was exiled to Pont-aux-Dames, the little 
country-house at Villiers-sur-Orge, to which reference 
has already been made, having previously rescued her 
^ Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 380. 



272 MADAME DU BARRY 

and her husband from a usurer into whose clutches 
they had fallen. This generosity, combined with the 
purchase of Saint- Vrain, had apparently made rather 
severe calls upon the countess's resources, for, six 
months later, we find her selling her hotel in the Ave- 
nue de Paris at Versailles to Monsieur (the Comte de 
Provence). The Court was then at Fontainebleau, 
and, in order to facilitate the transfer of the property, 
Madame du Barry was allowed to- revisit Louveciennes 
and to remain there some days. 

On October 28, Malesherbes wrote to the Lieuten- 
ant of Police, informing him of the approaching pub- 
lication of "a very scandalous book about Madame 
la Comtesse du Barry," and charging him to take 
every possible precaution to prevent its circulation 
in France. 

This book was the famous Anecdotes, the appear- 
ance of which must have considerably damped Madame 
du Barry's pleasure at escaping from her convent. The 
author was that mendacious scribe, Pidansat de Mairo- 
bert, of whose inventive talent we have already had 
occasion to speak. It was printed in London, and cop- 
ies were imported into France by way of Holland, the 
usual channel for such publications. 

Acting on the instructions of Malesherbes which 
were, no doubt, dictated by regard for the memory of 
the late King rather than for the reputation of his 
mistress, the police made heroic efforts to cope with 
the invasion; but, though a number of copies were 
seized and destroyed, many more escaped their vigi- 
lance, and the book, adroitly "puffed" by piquant criti- 
cisms in various journals, probably written by the au- 
thor himself, soon became the talk of Paris. 

Although this atrocious libel was probably rated at 
its true value by the majority of its victim's contem- 



MADAME DU BARRY 273 

poraries, that large class of French historians who pre- 
fer piquancy to probability have chosen to ignore the 
character of its author — who, it may be mentioned, 
committed suicide two years later— -and to regard it as 
an authoritative work, with the result that among 
those unacquainted with the works of the Goncourts, 
Vatel, and Mr. Douglas the name of Madame du 
Barry is still regarded "as a synonym for all the de- 
pravity, profligacy, and vice of which a woman is 
capable." 

About the same time as the Anecdotes were pub- 
lished, a "satirical brochure," entitled U Ombre de 
Louis XV, devcmt le tribunal de Minos, appeared at 
Bordeaux. The police, however, were on the alert, and 
not only seized some two thousand copies, but arrested 
a number of persons suspected of being "aiders, abet- 
tors, accomplices, and adherents" of the crime of lese- 
majeste. Although published at Bordeaux, the print- 
ing of the libel was traced to Cahors, which led to an 
acrimonious dispute on the question of jurisdiction 
between the Parliament of the former city and that of 
Toulouse. Finally, the matter was referred to the 
King, who decided in favour of the Parliament o^f 
Toulouse, by which time, we may suppose, "the aiders, 
abettors, accomplices, and adherents" had had enough 
experience of prison life to last them for the remainder 
of their days. 

The winter of 1775- 1776 was an exceptionally 
severe one; indeed such terrible weather had hardly 
been known since the never-to-be-forgotten winter of 
1709; and Madame du Barry, snowed up at Saint- 
Vrain, was a prey to the direst ennui. She seems, 
however, to have had company. The inevitable "Chon" 
was of course there, and with her a M. Fauga, who 
passed for the lover of that somewhat mature spin- 



274 MADAME DU BARRY 

ster, and also a third person, whose relations with his 
fair hostess are decidedly amusing. 

This was a certain Vicomte de Langle, a veteran of 
the Seven Years' War, ''fort connu par Feclat de ses 
desordres, de ses services milit aires, et de ses ou- 
vrages/'^ In appearance, we are told, he bore a striking- 
resemblance to Mirabeau, and, like that remarkable 
character, had spent a great part of his youth in vari- 
ous fortresses, where he had been incarcerated by his 
family to keep him out of mischief. Mr. Douglas at- 
tributes to the viscount matrimonial designs upon 
Madame du Barry, who was still a rich woman ;" but 
inasmuch as Comte Guillaume was still in the flesh, 
the designs, if there were any, must have been of a 
less legitimate character. However that may be, M. 
de Langle's presence at Saint-Vrain appears to have 
afforded material for much illnatured gossip, and in 
the Archives Nationales is preserved a curious docu- 
ment, entitled Memoir es du chevalier de Langles (sic) 
pour se justiHer d'avoir gagne an jeii 90,000 livres a 
Madame du Barry, et d' avoir cherche a la raccommo- 
der avec le due de Choiseul. 

In this memoir, the viscount states that three charges 
have been brought against him in regard to his conduct 
at Saint-Vrain. The first is that he had demanded 
from Madame du Barry 90,000 livres which he had 
won off her at play; the second, that he had been in 
love with the lady and jealous of her; and the third, 
that, in order to revenge himself upon her for having 

^ Le voyage de Figaro en Espagne is his best known — or least 
forgotten — work. 

" In addition to her life-tenancy of Louveciennes and Les 
Loges de Nantes, worth 40,000 livres per annum, the ex-favourite 
had an income of 105,000 livres derived from rentes on the 
Hotel de Ville, which had been given her by Louis XV., while 
her jewellery and art treasures were worth a considerable 
fortune. 



MADAME DU BARRY 275 

rejeried his addresses, he had given an account of her 
conduct to the Due de Choiseul, who was always anx- 
ious to hear anything to the discredit of his old enemy. 

All three charges, he declares, are utterly false. He 
says that on the night before Madame du Barry left 
Saint- Vrain for Louveciennes, "in a moment of 
ennui/' she made a bet of twelve sols that she would 
''hole" nine balls out of the nineteen at the first throw 
at Trou-Madame/^ and went on increasing the stakes 
till she owed him 90,000 livres ; but that of this large 
sum he refused to accept more than fifty louis, for 
the benefit of a young woman, a protegee of his, who 
was about to enter the countess's service. 

On another occasion, the viscount, according to his 
own showing, was still more generous. This time, his 
fair hostess, forgetting for the moment apparently that 
she no longer had the Treasury at her back, staked on 
the martingale system, with the result that, at one 
period of the game she was in his debt to the extent 
of 1,500,000 livres. ''But," he adds, "she was the 
only one who was alarmed. The bystanders were as 
convinced as I myself was that I should continue play- 
ing until she had recovered her losses; and, in fact, 
that was exactly what happened." 

The other charges, namely, that he made love to the 
lady and was repulsed, and that, out of spite, he be- 
trayed the secrets of her household to M. de Choiseul, 
are equally without foundation. It is a fact that M. 
de Choiseul attempted to "draw" him on the subject, 
but he got nothing for his pains. One day the duke 
and the viscount met, when the following conversation 
took place : 

"You are a frequent visitor at Madame du Barry's?" 

^'^ Troii-Madame w?.s a game somewhat similar to bagatelle; 
but the balls were thrown with the hand, not pushed by a cue, 
and the pockets were numbered both for gain and loss. 



2y6 MADAME DU BARRY 

The viscount admitted that he did occasionally pay his 
court to the countess. "She has kept all her servaiits?" 
"Yes, M. le Due." "Her servants perform comedies?" 
"Yes, M. le Due." "But she must have a considerable 
fortune to support all this expense?" "I believe so, 
M. le Due." "Adieu, M. de Langle." "Your servant, 
M. le Due." 

The viscount takes great credit to himself for hav- 
ing so skilfully baffled the ex-Minister's curiosity ; but, 
as a matter of fact, there was very little to relate, as 
life in ''cette abominable campagne," as the author of 
the above amusing memoir designates Saint- Vrain, 
was singularly uneventful. However, the countess 
only remained there eighteen months, for, on Novem- 
ber 15, 1776, the Nouvelles a la main announce that 
"Madame du Barry comes and goes freely between 
Paris and Louveciennes." The writer adds that this 
concession was due to the Comte d'Artois, who was 
desirous of succeeding his departed grandfather in the 
good graces of the lady, and had had a tender inter- 
view with her at Radix de Sainte-Foy's house at 
Neuilly; M. de Sainte-Foy receiving, as the price of 
his complaisance, the post of surintendant of his Royal 
Highness's finances. 

The latter part of this paragraph was a gross libel 
upon the persons mentioned, as Radix de Sainte-Foy 
had held the post of surintendant des finances to the 
Comte d'Artois for some considerable time; while the 
prince in question was so hostile to Madame du Barry 
that, during the last months of the lady's favour, he 
had forbidden his wife to speak to her. But the first 
statement was correct: principally, it would appear, 
through the good offices of Maurepas, d'Aiguillon's 
uncle, now first Minister to Louis XVL," the decree of 

" Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 399, et seq. 

^^ D'Aiguillon had been replaced by Vergennes, Terray by Tur- 



MADAME DU BARRY 2^7 

exile pronounced against the ex-favourite, except so 
far as regarded her appearing at Court, had been can- 
celled, and she had been permitted to return to Louve- 
ciennes. 

got, and Maupeou by Miromesnil, and all three had been exiled 
to their estates, though the fall of the duke had been broken by a 
gratification of 500,000 livres. Maurepas, though first Minister, 
had no portfolio. Paris went wild with joy over the dismissal 
of Maupeou and Terray; the former was burned and the latter 
hanged in effigy, and the riots of triumph continued for a whol'e 
week. Terray was indeed regarded as the very incarnation of 
evil. One day, being ill, he sent for Bouvard, the celebrated 
doctor, and told him he was suffering " conime un damne." 
"What ? already. Monsieur ! " was the reply, which aptly ex- 
pressed the popular feeling in regard to the Comptroller-Gen- 
eral. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE beautiful little chateau of Louveciennes, 
with its almost priceless art treasures, had up 
to that time seen but little of its mistress. 
Obliged to remain the greater part of the year at Ver- 
sailles, and to follow the Court in its journeys from 
one royal residence to another, a few days at consider- 
able intervals had been all that Madame du Barry had 
been able to spend in her "palace-boudoir." Hence- 
forth, however, she was to reside here continuously, 
until the doors of Sainte-Pelagie closed upon her, and 
«ier name was to become as indissolubly connected with 
Louveciennes as Madame de Montespan's with Clagny, 
or Madame de Maintenon's with the old chateau from 
which she took her title. 

It was, perhaps, fortunate for the ex-favourite that 
residence at Louveciennes had still for her the charm 
of novelty, for, during the first year or two, she ap- 
pears to have led a very quiet life. The memory of 
courtiers is proverbially short, and few indeed of the 
many friends she had made in the days of her splen- 
dour cared to brave the displeasure of the King and 
Queen by visiting the fallen sultana. 

One visitor, however, she had, who could afford to 
ignore the opinion of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi- 
nette, and whose arrival must have gone far to con- 
sole the mistress of Louveciennes for the neglect of 
those who had once been so loud in their expressions 
of attachment. 

In April 1777, the Emperor Joseph II. arrived in 
France, on a visit to his sister, travelling under the 

278 



MADAME DU BARRY 279 

name of the Comte de Falckenstein. The bluff, out- 
spoken monarch spent some weeks in the capital, and 
appears to have greatly pleased the Parisians by the 
interest he took in all that he saw around him; but 
the impression which he created at Court, where he 
took upon himself to animadvert in the strongest terms 
on the shameful extravagance which prevailed, and the 
indecorous behaviour of the Queen and her unworthy 
favourites, was by no means so favourable ; and Marie** 
Antoinette must have been unfeignedly glad when the 
time came for him to return to Vienna. 

About a month after his arrival in France, his Im- 
perial Majesty announced that he had a great desire to 
inspect the celebrated hydraulic machine at Marly, 
which, as we have mentioned, was close to Louvecien- 
nes. He had previously, it appears, caused inquiries 
to be made in order to ascertain if Madame du Barry 
was Hkely to be at home that day; and the lady in 
question happened to be taking an unpremeditated 
walk in the direction of the machine at the very mo- 
ment when the Emperor arrived there. His Majesty 
requested that the countess might be presented to him, 
expressed great admriation for the pavilion which he 
saw in the distance, begged that he might be permit- 
ted to examine it more closely, and remained in conver- 
sation with the fair chatelaine for the space of two 
hours. 

After Joseph 11. had duly admired the Fragonards, 
Drouais, and other treasures, he remarked upon the 
beauty of the gardens. The countess proposed to 
show them to him ; the Emperor accepted, and offered 
his arm; the lady modestly declined: "Oh, Sire! I am 
unworthy of such an honour." To which the monarch 
replied gallantly (he was very far from gallant, it 
may be remarked, where the Polignacs, Guemenees, 
and other harpies whom his foolish sister had gathered 



28o MADAME DU BARRY 

round her were concerned) : "Raise no objection on 
that score. Beauty is always Queen."^ 

Joseph afterwards expressed the opinion that the 
countess was not so beautiful as he had expected to 
find, but that he was very glad to have seen her. 

Marie Antoinette was greatly annoyed on learning 
of her brother's escapade, and her indignation was in- 
tensified by the Emperor's refusal to visit the Choi- 
seuls. The ex-Minister's hopes of a speedy return to 
place and power on the death of Louis XV. had not 
been realised, for the new King had learned the lessons 
which La Vauguyon had taught him but too well ; and 
though that intriguing old gentleman had died some 
years before, his teaching had not been effaced from 
his former pupil's mind. Choiseul had counted much 
on the Emperor's visit ; but Joseph did not share Marie 
Antoinette's admiration of the duke, and one day re- 
marked to Louis XVL that it was fortunate that he 
had a judicious and even-tempered Minister at the be- 
ginning of his reign, adding: "If the Due de Choiseul 
had been in office, his restless and turbulent spirit 
would have plunged the Kingdom into great difficul- 
ties." 

On February lo, 1778, Voltaire returned to Paris, 
after an absence of eight-and-twenty years, and was 
received with the utmost enthusiasm by the Academy, 
by Society, and by all the more important foreign vis- 
itors. He received all Paris in his bedroom at the house 
of the Marquis and Marquise de la Villette, in the Rue 

^ Memolres secrets, May, 21, 1777. Mercy, in a letter to Maria 
Theresa, says that Joseph met the lady in the garden, tones 
down the two hours' conversation to one of " a few moments," 
and states that his Imperial Majesty " found the said countess 
such as I have depicted her." The Empress replies : " I should 
have been better pleased if the Emperor had refrained from 
visiting that despicable Du Barry." 



MADAME DU BARRY 281 

de Beaune. There was an ante-chamber, which from 
seven o'clock in the morning until half-past ten at 
night was thronged with worshippers. They were in- 
troduced one by one to the Patriarch, whom they found 
enveloped in an enormous velvet pelisse lined with 
ermine and braided with gold, and with a nightcap on 
his head, ostentatiously correcting the proofs of his 
tragedy of Irene. Madame du Barry came to pay her 
court among the rest, but had considerable difficulty 
in obtaining an audience. We read in the Memoires 
secrets, under date February 21 : 

''Friday. — ^Voltaire has worked so hard, that he has 
not allowed his secretary time to dress himself. 
Madame la Comtesse du Barry presented herself after 
dinner; but they had great difficulty in persuading 
the old invalid to see her. His amour-propre would 
not permit him to appear before this beauty with- 
out having made his toilette. He yielded at length 
to her importunity, and repaired by the graces of 
his mind what he lacked in the matter of outward 
elegance."" 

Madame du Barry's visit was marked by an inter- 
esting episode. Brissot, the future leader of the Giron- 
dins, relates in his Memoires that he was very anxious 
to submit to Voltaire the first part of his Theorie des 
Lois crimineiles. He made his way to the Rue de 
Beaune, but, on arriving there, his courage failed him, 

' In reference to this visit, Lebrun wrote to Buffon : " The 
tears rolled from his (Voltaire's) eyes when speaking of his 
Belle et Bonne Madame de Villette), as he calls her, and com- 
paring her simple grace to Madame du Barry, who had just left 
him." Five years before, when Louis XV. was still alive, and 
Madame du Barry all-powerful, the Patriarch had, as we have 
seen, formed a much higher opinion of the lady's charms. But 
times had changed, and she could no longer be of any assistance 
in procuring for him the honours of the Court, which were 
needed, he thought, to put the comble upon his glory. So goes 
the world! 



282 MADAME DU BARRY 

and he left without attempting to obtain an interview 
with the great man. On the following day, however, 
he returned to the charge. 

"1 had almost reached the ante-chamber," he says, 
''where there seemed that day less commotion than on 
the previous evening, when I heard a noise within, and 
the door opened. Assailed by my foolish timidity, I 
quickly redescended the stairs, but, ashamed of myself, 
I retraced my steps. A woman, whom the master of 
the house had just shown out, was at the foot of the 
staircase. This woman was beautiful and had a kind 
face. I did not hesitate to address myself to her, and 
inquired if she thought that it was possible for me to 
be introduced to M. de Voltaire, telling her frankly the 
object of my visit. 'M. de Voltaire has received 
scarcely any one to-day,' she answered kindly. 'How- 
ever, it is a favour, Monsieur, which I have just ob- 
tained, and I do not doubt that 3^ou will obtain it also.' 
And as if, through my embarrassed air, she had di- 
vined my timidity, she herself called the master of the 
house, who had not yet closed the door upon her, and 
I was admitted. She left me, after having responded 
to my profound salutations by a smile full of kindness 
and which seemed to recommend me. 

"... I ought to mention the name of this amiable 
woman, whom I met at Voltaire's door; it was 
Madame du Barry. In recalling to myself her smile 
so full of sweetness and kindness, I became more in- 
dulgent towards the favourite; but I leave to others 
the task of excusing the weakness and infamy of Louis 
XV. . . ." 

Brissot goes on tO' tell us that in a conversation with 
Mirabeau he happened to remark that, bad as Madame 
du Barry was, she compared very favourably with the 
Maintenons and Pompadours, since she, at any rate, 
had never made a despotic use of her power ; to which 



MADAME DU BARRY 283 

Mirabeau replied : ''Vous avez raison; si ce ne fut pas 
une Vestale^ 

'' 'La faute en est aux dieux qui la Hrent si belief " 

Towards the close of that same year, a great sorrow 
befell Madame du Barry : her nephew, the so-called 
Vicomte du Barry, to whom she was much attached, 
met his death under tragic circumstances. 

After their banishment from Court in 1774, Adolphe 
du Barry and his young wife seemed tO' have led a 
wandering existence, patronising in turn various 
health-resorts, where the viscountess might have her 
fill of balls and routs, and the viscount, who, like the 
majority of fine gentlemen of the time, was an in- 
veterate gamester, indulge his fondness for faro and 
kindred pursuits. In the latter summer or early au- 
tumn of 1778, they were at Spa, and here they met a 
young Irish adventurer, who called himself Count 
Rice, a cousin a la mode de Bretagne of Marshal Lacy. 

The Irishman, who is described as ''un tres beau 
gargon, d'une education parfaite/^ and the viscountess 
soon became on very friendly terms, and whenever the 
fascinations of the green tables at the Ridotto claimed 
the viscount's attention, Mr. Rice seems to have been 
in the habit of keeping the lady company. 

From Spa the Du Barrys went to Bath, accompanied 
by Rice and a compatriot of his named Toole; where, 
thanks to the good offices of Mrs. Damer, who took a 
great fancy to the viscountess, they penetrated into 
the most exclusive circles, and, with the aid of a faro 
bank, which, in defiance of the law, they kept at their 
house in Royal Crescent, seem to have had a very 
profitable time. 

One day, however, Du Barry and Rice had a violent 
quarrel. They were alone at the time, and its origin 
was never discovered, but the most probably explana- 



284 MADAME PU BARRY 

tion IS that Du Barry was jealous of the Irishman's at- 
tentions to his wife.' Any way, they were exasperated 
against each other to the last degree, for not only was 
it determined that they should fight a duel, but that it 
should continue till one of them was killed. 

Two nights later, Du Barry having spent the inter- 
val in arranging his affairs, they were seen to leave 
the house together, followed by the viscountess — who 
had discovered their intention — uttering frantic cries. 
They managed to elude her, however, hired a coach, 
and accompanied by Toole, another friend named Rog- 
ers, and a surgeon, drove out to Claverton Down, a 
spot much favoured by gentlemen of the neighbour- 
hood who had differences tO' settle. Here they waited 
till daybreak, when Du Barry sprang out of the coach 
and insisted on an immediate commencement. The 
conditions were that each should be armed with a 
brace of pistols and a sword; that they should fire 
from a distance of twenty-five paces, and then engage 
with the steel, and that the conqueror might despatch 
his antagonist, even if he lay helpless on the ground. 

Du Barry fired first and lodged a ball in Rice's thigh. 
The Irishman, however, contrived to keep his feet and 
fire both his pistols, the second shot piercing his ad- 
versary's breast; and then advanced upon him sword 
in hand. Du Barry asked for quarter, which Rice at 
once granted; but, almost at the same moment, the 
Frenchman fell to the ground and expired. 

The body of the unfortunate young man was buried 

in Bathampton Cemetery, and a stone placed over his 

grave bearing the inscription : 

Here rest the remains of 
John Baptist, Viscount du Barry 
Obiit 18 November 1778, 

'This is the conclusion arrived at by M. Marius Tallon, who, 
some years ago, published an interesting monograph on the 
Vicomtesse du Barry. 



MADAME DU BARRY 285 

Rice, who recovered from his wound, was tried for 
homicide at Taunton Assizes in the following April, 
and acquitted. He lived for many years, and was even- 
tually killed in the Peninsular War/ 

The widowed viscountess returned to France, and 
retired for a few months to a convent. On quitting it, 
she caused the arms of her husband to be removed 
from her carriages, changed her servants' liveries, and 
finally, having succeeded in obtaining permission to 
return to Court, reappeared there under the title of the 
Comtesse de Toumon. These insults to the memory 
of his son, to whom, tO' do him justice, he seems to 
have been genuinely attached, greatly exasperated the 
''Rouef' and when, to crown all, the lady petitioned 
to have the estates she had inherited from her husband 
formed intO' a ^'county of Tournon," he opposed the 
application. A long and acrimonious lawsuit follow- 
ed, in which the ^'Comtesse de Tournon," although she 
had the best of the compromise eventually arrived at, 
was made to cut a very sorry figure. In 1782, she 
married again, her second husband being a relative, the 
Marquis de Claveyron, but died three years later. 

For some years after the death of Louis XV. 
Madame du Barry appears to have led an exemplary 
life. We cannot, however, agree with Mr. Douglas 
that this was attributable to the fact that the image of 
the late King had not yet been effaced from her heart ; 
it is more likely to have been due to accident, or to 
the fear that a resumption oi her irregularities would 
have been promptly visited with another and longer 
period of cloistral seclusion. Towards the year 1780, 
however, the restraining influence, if one there was, 

*Dutens's Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (edit. 1806), 
ii. 125, et seq. M. Marius Tallon's La Vicomtesse de Toumon et 
les Du Barry, passim. 



286 MADAME DU BARRY 

had evidently been removed, for v^e find her indulging 
in a grande passion. 

About half a league from Louveciennes, and clearly 
visible from the terrace adjoining the pavilion of 
Madame du Barry, there stands a villa called Prunay, 
built or restored by a Madame Le Neveu at the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century, and occupied at the 
time of which we are writing by a middle-aged Eng- 
lishman named Henry Seymour. 

A good deal of misconception exists among both 
French and English writers in regard to the identity 
of this Henry Seymour. The Goncourts refer to him 
as Lord Seymour, and state that he was English Am- 
bassador at the French Court; to M. Vatel he is ''un 
asses grand personnage/' and ''though neither lord, 
ambassador, or even barronet (sic), a count"; while 
the late Captain Bingham, in his delightful work, 'The 
Marriages of the Bourbons," calls him Lord Henry 
Seymour. 

As a matter of fact, Henry Seymour had no title at 
all, though M. Vatel is correct in supposing him to be 
''nn asses grand personnage." He was the son of 
Francis Seymour, of Sherborne, Dorset, M. P. for 
Great Bedwyn, 1732- 1734, and for Marlborough, 
1 734- 1 74 1, by Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Pop- 
' ham of Littlecot, Wiltshire, and widow of Viscount 
Hinchingbrook. His uncle was Sir Edward Seymour, 
who, on the death of Algernon, seventh Duke of Som- 
erset, in 1750, succeeded in establishing his claim to 
the dukedom. 

Henry Seymour was born in London in 1729, and 
educated at New College, Oxford. At the age of 
twenty-four, he married Lady Caroline Cowper, only 
daughter of the second Earl Cowper, and during the 
absence of his brother-in-law, the third earl, at Flor- 
ence, where he resided for some years, seems to have 



MADAME DU BARRY 287 

occupied the family seat, Panshanger, near Hertford. 
He was himself, however, a considerable landowner. 
From his father, who died in 1762, he inherited Sher- 
borne; from his uncle, William Seymour, the estate 
of Knoyle, in Wiltshire; while he also owned North- 
brook Lodge, Devon, Redland Court, Bristol, and a 
property at Norton, near Evesham. His town house 
was in Charles Street, Berkeley Square. 

Following the example of his father and his uncle, 
the duke, he entered political life, was appointed 
Groom of the Bedchamber, and successively represent- 
ed in Parliament the boroughs of Totnes (1763- 
1768), Huntingdon (1768- 1774), and Evesham 
(1774-1780). He only addressed the House upon 
one occasion, however, which was on February 29, 
1776, in support of Fox's motion for an inquiry into 
the mismanagement of the American War. 

Lady Caroline Cowper died in 1771, after bearing 
her husband tv/o^ daughters, Caroline, who married 
William Danby, of Swinton, Yorkshire, and Georgina, 
who became the wife of Comte Louis de Durfort, 
sometime French Ambassador at Venice ; and, four 
years later, Seymour married Anne Louise Therese, 
Comtesse de Panthou, a young widow, twelve years 
his junior, by whom he had a son, Henry, born in 
1776. 

In 1778, for reasons which are uncertain, though 
Mr. J. G. Alger — to whose interesting article in the 
WesUninster Revieiv (January 1897) we are indebted 
for most of our information about Madame Du Bar- 
ry's English lover — seems to think it was for the sake 
of economising, Seymour settled in France, rented a 
house in Paris, Rue de la Planche, Faubourg Saint- 
Germain, and applied for legal domicile, to protect his 
property from forfeiture to the Crown as atibaine^ in 
the event of his death. About the same time, he pur- 



288 MADAME DU BARRY 

chased Prunay, and appears to have spent a consider- 
able sum on improving the house and grounds. 

The only evidence of Seymour's connection with the 
ex-favourite, apart from a passing reference in the 
Memoires of the Abbe Georgel, are the lady's letters 
to her lover, a number of which, together with a lock 
of her hair tied with blue ribbon, were sold by auction 
in Paris in 1892. 

Only a few of these letters, however, have been pub- 
lished, and it is uncertain into whose possession the 
remainder have passed. As none of the published 
letters bear any date, except the day of the week, it 
is impossible to say when the liaison began. Ac- 
cording to the Abbe Georgel, the attachment was 
formed shortly after Madame du Barry's return to 
Louveciennes, that is to say, in the early part of the 
year 1777; but M. Vatel thinks it was not until 1779 
or 1780, as in one of the countess's letters, written 
while they were still only friends, she speaks of a little 
girl called Cornichon, "who talks of you constantly." 
This little girl, says M. Vatel, who was the daughter 
of the gardener at Louveciennes, and a great pet of the 
mistress of the chateau, was not born until 1775, and, 
therefore, must have been at that time three or four 
years of age at least. 

The liaison between Henry Seymour and Madame 
du Barry does not appear to have been exempt from 
storms, nor was it of long duration. However, while 
it lasted, it was undoubtedly a genuine passion, and 
the lady's letters to her lover bear the unmistakable 
stamp of sincerity. "What an unlooked-for tone in 
this correspondence! How different a du Barry is 
revealed to you in the shadow, behind the popular du 
Barry of pamphlets and romances ! It is no longer the 
courtesan, no longer the favourite ; it is a woman who 



MADAME DU BARRY 289 

loves."* "What a romantic passion, what sensibility, 
what transport ! It was a real love drama, with elegies, 
pastorals, and eclogues to satisfy the least sentimental 
man in the world. "^ 

In the first letter, we find Madame du Barry inquir- 
ing anxiously after the health of Seymour's younger 
daughter, who is ill, and assuring him of the deep 
sympathy she feels for him in his trouble: 

"I am greatly touched. Monsieur, by the cause which 
deprives me of the pleasure of seeing you at my house, 
and I most sincerely pity your daughter in the illness 
from which she is suffering. I imagine that your heart 
is undergoing quite as much pain as hers, and I share 
your sensibility. I can only exhort you to take cour- 
age, since the doctor assures you there is no danger. 
If the interest that I take (ji prans!) were able to be 
of some consolation to you, you would be less agitated. 

'^Mademoiselle du Barry ('Chon') is as sensible as 
I am to all that concerns you and begs me to assure 
you of it. 

"Our journey has been very fortunate; Cornichon 
does not forget you and talks oi you constantly. I am 
delighted that the little dog affords your daughter a 
moment's diversion. 

"Accept, Monsieur, the assurance of the sentiments 
that I have for you. 
" Louveciennes, Saturday, 6 o'clock.** 

In the next, they are still only friends, but the lady 
is evidently glad to avail herself of any excuse for 
writing to him : 

"It has long been remarked that little attentions pre- 
serve friendship, and Monsieur Seymour ought to be 

•E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 211. 
^ Nouvelles a la main sur Madame du Barry, a pretended 
manuscript published by Emile Cantril in 1761. 
' See p. 288, supra. 



290 MADAME DU BARRY 

well persuaded of the extent tO' which Louveciennes is 
interested in all that can please or satisfy him. He ap- 
pears to be very anxious to possess a coin squandered 
very unsuitably in the little game of loto ;' it is of the 
time of Louis XIV. Monsieur Seymour is a great ad- 
mirer of that age, so fertile {fegont!) in marvels. Here 
is a miniature of it, which the Louveciennes ladies 
send you. They part with it with pleasure, because 
they know that Monsieur Seymour will appreciate the 
sacrifice, and will be well assured that the ladies will 
find more essential occasions of proving their friend- 
ship for him. 

"We have no news here, except of the little dog, 
which is well and drinks of its own accord."* 

In the third letter, friendship has developed into 
love — into passion. He has become necessary to her 
happiness : she desires to be constantly with him : 

"Now that I am deprived of the satisfaction of see- 
ing 5^ou, I have a thousand things to tell you, a thou- 
sand things to communicate to you. . . . Never have 
I felt so much as at this moment how necessary you 
are to me. Rest assured that it would be a happiness 
to be constantly with you. . . . Adieu, my friend. 
What an age between now and Saturday !" 

The next letter was, apparently, written later in the 
same week. She is all impatience for Saturday to ar- 
rive: 

"The assurance of your affection, my affectionate 
friend, is the happiness of my life. Believe that my 

' She probably means that the coin had been used as a counter 
at loto. 

^ Apparently a puppy which Seymour had given her, in returr 
for the little dog she had sent his daughter. 







3** 






MADAME DU BARRY 291 

heart finds these two days very long and that were it in 
my power to curtail them, it would have no more un- 
easiness. I await you on Saturday with all the im- 
patience of a soul entirely yours, and I hope that you 
will desire nothing (sic). I mean to be rid of all my 
ailments by Saturday, and to feel alone the pleasure of 
proving tO' you how dear you are to me. Adieu, I 
am yours. 

" Thursday, 2 o'clock." 

The letter which follows is in an equally passionate 
strain : 

"My heart is undividedly yours, and, if I have failed 
to keep my promise, my fingers alone are to blame. I 
have been very unwell since you left me, and I assure 
you that I have only strength to think of you. Adieu, 
my afifectionate friend ; I love you — I repeat it, and I 
believe myself happy. I embrace you a thousand times, 
and am yours. Come early.' 



JJlO 



From the next it would appear that a little cloud had 
arisen upon the lover's horizon; Seymour had evi- 
dently a suspicion that the lady's heart was no longer 
undividedly his : 

"You will only have a single word, and it would be 
a reproach if my heart could make you one. I am so 
tired after four long letters which I have just written 
that I have only strength to tell that I love you. To- 
morrow I will tell you what has prevented me giving 
you tidings of myself, but believe me that, whatever 
you say, you will be the only friend of my heart. 
"Friday, 2 o'clock." 

" Printed in the catalogue at a sale of autographs in February 
1755, and published by the Goncourts. 
Memoirs—lO Vol. 2 



292 MADAME DU BARRY 

The tone of its successor, however, must have been 
calculated to reassure him : 

'^Mon Dieu! my affectionate friend, how melancholy 
are the days which follow those that I have had the 
pleasure of spending with you, and with what joy I 
see the moment arrive which is to bring you to me !" 

But at the time the next was written the cloud had 
become larger: 

"I shall not go to Paris to-day, because the person I 
was to go and see came on Tuesday just after you left. 
His (or her) visit greatly embarrassed me, for I be- 
lieve that you were the object of it. Adieu; I await 
you with the impatience of a heart entirely yours and 
which, in spite of your injustice, feels that it cannot 
be another's. I think of you ; I tell you so and repeat 
it, and have no other regret than that of not being able 
to tell you so every moment. 
" Louveclennes, noon.'* 

The ambiguities of the French language, as Mr. 
Alger points out, prevent us from knowing whether 
la personne and sa visite mentioned in the aforegoing 
letter refer to a man or woman. "Was it Mirs. Seymour 
suspicious of her husband's intimacy with Madame du 
Barry, or was it the Due de Brissac, already hovering 
round his future mistress?'* Both he and M. Vatel in- 
cline to the opinion that it was the latter; and the lady's 
complaint of Seymour's "injustice," presumably un- 
just suspicions, certainly strengthens this supposition. 
However, all doubt on the matter is set at rest by the 
next letter, which, together with the four which follow 
it, is not given in the works of the Goncourts or Vatel, 
but was published, we believe, for the first time by Mr. 
Alger : 



MADAME DU BARRY 293 

"I am as much surprised as you, my affectionate 
friend, at the visit. I assure you that it gave me no 
pleasure. I am so absorbed with you that I could not 
be diverted by anything that was not you. How un- 
just and cruel you are! What pleasure do you take 
in tormenting a heart which cannot and will not be 
anybody's but yours ! 

"Adieu; do not forget une amie who loves you. I 
have no strength to tell you more. I would fain, but 
cannot, flee from you." 

But if Seymour was jealous of Brissac, Madame du 
Barry was jealous of Mrs. Seymour : 

"I wish it were possible for you to live for me alone, 
just as I would live only for you; but your ties are an 
invincible obstacle, and every moment of my life, even 
those I pass with you, is embittered by this cruel idea." 

From another letter it would appear that Seymour 
had proposed to visit Madame du Barry, but that she 
had had a prior engagement, possibly with his rival : 

"I am vexed at having an engagement to-day. I am 
not much in Society, but as we cannot pass our lives in 
a tete-a-tete J you will understand that I require a few 
diversions." 

The next shows that relations between them were 
becoming very strained, and that Seymour had re- 
proached her bitterly, and threatened to break off the 
connection : 

"I feel the value of such a friend as you. Monsieur. 
I form empty plans, which I should not have the 
strength to carry out. Your letter has rent my soul ; 



294 MADAME DU BARRY 

the idea of seeing you no more adds to all my suffer- 
ings. Come, my friend, strengthen my still wavering 
heart. Your tender and persuasive friendship can 
alone assuage the throbbing wound of my soul. Come 
back, my affectionate friend ; I cannot be happy with- 
out you." 

She will not, cannot, give him up; he has become 
necessary to her very existence: 

"Understand my heart and my weakness, my friend. 
I would fain renounce and shun you, but I am so ill 
that I believe it would be impossible to live without 
seeing you." 

But the rupture comes none the less, and it is her 
own hand which severs the chain : 

"It is needless to speak to you of my affection and 
sensibility ; you know it ; but what you do not know are 
my sufferings. You have not condescended to reassure 
me as to what disturbs my mind. Therefore I think 
that my tranquillity and happiness are immaterial to 
you. It is with regret that I speak to you of this, but 
it is for the last time. My head is well, my heart is 
what suffers; but with much resolution and courage I 
shall succeed in subduing it. The task is hard and 
grievous, but it is necessary. It is the last sacrifice 
that remains for me to make. My heart has made all 
the others; it is for my reason to make this. Adieu; 
be assured that you alone fill my heart. 
" Wednesday, midnight." 

Seymour does not appear to have been altogether an 
amiable person. He had an illegitimate son, with 
whom his relations were strained, and he was on very 



MADAME DU BARRY 295 

bad terms with his wife. In January 1781 they 
separated, having for some months previously com- 
municated only in writing, though living in the same 
house; but, according to Mr. Alger, it is doubtful 
whether the husband's attentions to Madame du Barry 
were responsible for their disagreement." 

Seymour continued to reside at Prunay down to 
August 1792, when, alarmed at the progress of the 
Revolution, he fled to England, leaving all his papers 
behind him. He was registered as an emigre, and his 
property appears to have been confiscated and sold. 
^'Madame du Barry's letters," says Mr. Alger, "must 
have been included in the seizure, and Seymour's pres- 
ervation of them, coupled with his continued residence 
at Prunay, seems to show that, parting in sorrow not 
in anger, they remained acquaintances, if not friends; 
but the letters either never reached the Archives or 
were abstracted. They are said to have been purchased 
by Barriere, the editor of ''Memoirs of the Eighteenth 
Century and of the Revolution," at a sale of auto- 
graphs in 1837, perhaps the Baillot sale of October 25, 
1837. But Barriere, who was a clerk at the Prefecture 
of Police, may have found them there, or have come 
by them in some clandestine way. We know what 
collectors are capable of, and Barriere appears to have 
made a mystery of them. In 1838 he communicated 
six of them to the brothers Goncourt for publication 
in their Portraits Intimes, and, twenty years, later he 
produced a seventh, which appeared in their Mattresses 
de Louis XV, He evidently gave them the impression 
that he had no others, but Vatel, Madame du Barry's 
latest biographer, was presented by him with an eighth, 
which he bequeathed to a Versailles publisher. Yet 

" See Mr. Alger's article on Henry Seymour in th'e West- 
minster Review, January 1897, in which he gives some interest- 
ing details about Mrs. Seymour. 



2g6 MADAME DU BARRY 

Barriere was all along- in possession of thirty others, 
which, together with the lock of hair, were not dis- 
posed of till 1892. Though the whole collection is 
doubtless in safe keeping, I have been unable to ascer- 
tain its whereabouts."" 

Seymour spent the rest of his life at his Wiltshire 
seat, Knoyle, where he died in 1805. His heirs after 
Waterloo claimed £8000 out of the compensation paid 
by France for losses of British subjects, and Mr. Alger 
thinks that the claim was allowed. His son, Henry, 
who lived till the age of seventy-three, also resided at 
Knoyle, and was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1835., 
He married a Miss Hopkinson, of Bath, but his mar- 
riage vows, like those of his father, seem to have been 
but lightly regarded, for after Waterloo he revisited 
France, and formed a connection with a lady of the 
Bourbon-Conti family. Of this intrigue a daughter 
was born, who married Sir James Tichborne, and be- 
came the mother of the young man personated by "the 
Claimant." 

" Westminster Review, January 1897. 



CHAPTER XX 

MADAME du Barry would not appear to have 
experienced much difficulty in finding con- 
solation for the loss of her English lover, for 
not long afterwards she formed what the Goncourts 
call '%ine liaison tendremenf maritale'' with the Due 
de Brissac/ whose attentions to her, if M. Vatel's and 
Mr. Alger's suppositions are correct, had been re- 
sponsible for her breach with the jealous Seymour. 
The Due de Brissac,^ who until the death of his 
father, the Marechal Due de Brissac, in December 
1 780, was known as the Due de Cosse, was a very great 
personage indeed. He was Governor of Paris, Captain 
of the Hundred Swiss, and Grand Pantler,* and was, in 
addition, a man of considerable wealth. His friend- 
ship with Madame du Barry was of many years stand- 

^ The Goncourts confound the Due de Brissac with his father, 
the Marechal de Brissac, who died in December 1780: "Enfant 
gatee de ram.our, elle (Madame du Barry) finit par I'adoration 
d'un chevalier, du dernier preux de France ! . . „ Ce heros d'un 
autre temps, dont Tame est, comme I'habit, a la mode de Louis 
XIV., I'heritier des males vertus de la vieille France ; ce beau 
vieillard, le dernier courtisan des femmes, eleve dans le mond'e 
et presque dans la langvie des grands sentiments et des raffine- 
ments de tendresse de Clelie et de I'Astree," &c, &c. The ab- 
surdity of this error will be appreciated when we mention that 
at the time of Louis XV.'s death the Marechal de Brissac was 
already seventy-six and had been paralysed for more than 
tw'enty years! 

^ He was the eighth holder of the title, the dukedum dating 
from 1620. The family of Cosse-Brissac came originally from 
Anjou, and had had several distinguished m'embers, including 
four Marechals de France. 

^ This office appears to have been hereditary in the family. 

297 



298 MADAME DU BARRY 

ing, ai\d it will be remembered that on the death of the 
Duchesse de Villars, in 1772, the then favourite had 
succeeded in procuring for the duke's wife the post of 
dame d'atours to Marie Antoinette/ 

At what date the friendship between Brissac and 
Madame du Barry developed into intimacy is uncer- 
tain. Some writers place it as early as 1780; but in 
December of that year Hardy speaks of the duke at- 
tending his father's funeral at Saint-Sulpice, and 
"ogling with misplaced affectation every member of the 
sex who crossed his path," conduct which greatly 
scandalised the worthy bookseller, and which M. Vatel 
considers entirely inconsistent with the possession of a 
grande passion. On the other hand, in the summer of 
1783, the Memoir es secrets give publicity to an un- 
founded rumour that the quondam favourite had had 
a child by Brissac \ while Hardy reports that Madame 
du Barry was fast ruining her noble lover,^ and both 
express their belief that the affair would end in the lady 
being relegated a second time to Pont-aux-Dames. 
From this it would appear that the liaison was not a 
new one, and the probability is that it began about 
1782. 

However that may be, by the middle of the follow- 
ing year, as we have seen, the connection between the 
two was a matter of common knowledge. The duke 
passed a great part of his time at Louveciennes, while 
Madame du Barry often came to Paris, "enveloped in 

^The duchess did not share her husband's admiration for 
Madame du Barry. In the autumn of 1772 she declined to attend 
a supper given by the Due de La Vrilliere to the favourite, and 
when Brissac wrote her a harsh letter, demanding that she should 
show her regard for the Comtesse du Barry and never refuse 
to do anything that might please her, replied that " she would 
rather resign her post than do anything which might expose her 
to being put on a level with the favourite." 

^ Memoires secrets, June 5, 1783. 

^Journal, July 13, 1783. 



MADAME DU BARRY 299 

the strictest incognito/' to spend a day or two with 
her lover at his hotel in the Rue de Crenelle Saint- 
Germain, and even had letters addressed to her there. 
What the poor, neglected Duchesse de Brissac, who, 
Creutz tells us, was ''beloved and revered for her 
virtues and her charm of mind," had to say to these 
arrangements history does not record; presumably she 
accepted the situation, as the majority of wives simi- 
larly circumstanced did in those days. 

The affair seems to have been regarded with an in- 
dulgence remarkable even in that age of easy morality. 
''The love for M. de Brissac," writes d'Allonville, as a 
rule, by nO' means inclined to be over-tender towards 
the ex- favourite, "did Madame du Barry the greatest 
honour. It would have been equivalent to the purifica- 
tion of her past life, had it not been illegitimate and 
doubly adulterous from a moral point of view,"^ and 
this was the general opinion of their contemporaries. 

The duke wrote a number of love-letters to his mis- 
tress, some of which have fortunately been preserved, 
and "show the depth, and, if we may be excused the 
exipression, the purity of his affection.'" 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

" Sunday, 2.0 p. m. 

'A thousand loves, a thousand thanks, dear heart. 
This evening I shall be with you. Yes, I find my hap- 
piness in being loved by you. I have this evening, at 
eight o'clock, an appointment with Madame Lascases. 
I do not know what she wants with me. I shall go to 
her house, as I will not give her the trouble to come 
to mine, although no one can touch my heart but you. 

"Adieu ; I love you and for ever. I am wafting for 
my visitors, who, I think, will be many." 

'^ Memoir es, i. 154. 

® Bingham's "Marriages of the Bourbons," ii. 428. 



300 MADAME DU BARRY 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

"La FUche, August 26, 1786, 10 a.m. 
"I arrived here yesterday at one o'clock, and all the 
people who were to travel by post passed before me, 
so that, dear heart, I am waiting" here for horses. I 
shall have to take a cross road, along which one can 
only go at a walking pace, and shall thus be delayed 
one day. I am none the less impatient to join you. 
Yes, dear heart, the moment for our reunion, not in 
spirit — for my thoughts are ever with you — but bodily, 
is a violent desire that nothing can appease. . . . Adieu, 
dear heart; I kiss you thousands and thousands of 
times with all my heart. Expect me Tuesday or Wed- 
nesday early." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

*' Vensdosme (sic), August 16, 1789. 
"I should have wished, dear heart, that you could 
have informed me of your complete recovery, and that 
you had recovered your plumpness ; but you say 
nothing about either. Nevertheless, dear heart, I must 
rejoice at your new fit of laziness, which is a strange 
thing for you, since it makes me hope that you will not 
be so much away from me. . . . Dear friend, I must 
now go and inspect my troops and leave you. I must 
tell you that I love you and how happy I shall be to 
see you again in as good health as I wish you to be." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

"Angers, August 29, Noon. 
"... What a wise and philosophic letter is yours 
of the 22nd, Madame la Comtesse ! yes, indeed, it is 
necessary to speak of hope and philosophy and of 
patience also when far from you, and when the States- 
General woirk so slowly on the truly important matters 



MADAME DU BARRY 301 

which all France awaits, and which ought to tranquil- 
lise her . . . 

"I wish I could share with you the splendid crop of 
fruit that the beautiful Angevin Ceres has procured 
us this year; but it would be neither wise nor possible 
to attempt to send you any, for the municipalities are 
afraid of the people, who, not content with the neces- 
saries of life, wish to appropriate the luxuries. 

*'But adieu, adieu, Madame la Comtesse ; it Is nearly 
noon, and I intend going to dine at Brissac. I offer 
you my respects, and my thanks for the punctuality 
with which you write to me. My only joys are the 
reception of your letters, the thought of you, and the 
everlasting affection I have for you, and which I offer 
you with my whole heart. 

"I might have received a letter from you yesterday, 
but I did not." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 
''The Tuileries, Wednesday, November 11, 1789. 

"I am going to remain in bed, dear heart, so that my 
cold may be better to-morrow, and that I may be a 
more pleasant companion for you than I should be if I 
were as ill as I am now. This cold is the consequence 
of biliousness, which comes from the stagnation of a 
too long stay in Paris, to which I am unaccustomed, 
and will end in killing me or sending me mad, if I am 
not soon allowed to change my residence. I hope that 
I shall; but I do not speak to you of it for fear that 
premature rejoicing may retard it. 

"Adieu, dear friend. I love you and kiss you a 
thousand times from the heart which is the most tender, 
of our two — I mean mine — ^but I will not erase what 
my pen has written, for I love to think that our hearts 
are one for ever. Adieu till to-morrow. Everything 
that happens appears to me mysterious and foolish, 



302 MADAME DU BARRY 

and the only wisdom is for us to be together. Adieu, 
affectionate friend; adieu, dear heart. I love you and 
kiss you.'" 

The affection of the devoted Brissac does not appear 
to have altogether consoled Madame du Barry for all 
that she had lost by the death of Louis XV. In 1783, 
Belleval, 'lier chevau-leger/' paid her a visit at Louve- 
ciennes, and found her as beautiful as ever; "indeed 
her beauty seemed more remarkable and more per- 
fect." On the other hand, she gave him the impression 
of being sad and lonely. "Instead of the laughter of 
former days, the tears welled from her eyes. She 
harped always on the past, in which I saw, with pity, 
she took refuge as much as possible, for it was worth 
more to her than the present. When I left her, she 
gave me her hand and said adieu to me in a voice full 
of feeling."^" 

In the spring of that same year, Madame du Barry 
commuted 50,000 livres per annum which had been 
secured to her by Louis XV. on the rentes of the Hotel 
de Ville for a sum of 1,200,000 livres. Even that 
zealous champion of the lady, M. Vatel, feels bound 
to protest against this "senseless munificence" on the 
part of the Government, and declares that she received 
at least half a million francs more than her claim was 
worth. If such were the case, however, her good 
fortune could not have benefited her very much, as the 
news that she was in possession of a large sum of 
money brought down upon her a whole horde of 
clamorous creditors. Amongst others, the Marquis 
de Claveyron, the second husband of Sophie de Tour- 
non, poor Adolphe du Barry's widow, put in a claim 
for his wife's dot, and compelled the countess to give 

"Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. passim. 
'^Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 136. 



MADAME DU BARRY 303 

security for the payment of the interest thereon. This 
demand must have been particularly annoying to 
Madame du Barry, for not only does the interest in 
question appear to have been regularly paid up to that 
date, but one of the reasons given by her niece for 
dropping her first husband's name in 1780 had been the 
desire to dissociate herself from a family which had 
caused so much scandal. She had been, she declared, 
at the time of her marriage to the "viscount" in entire 
ignorance of the position of the Comtesse du Barry; 
but, having ascertained the truth, her virtue would no 
longer permit her to bear the same name! She was 
ready enough, it appeared, to acknowledge the re- 
lationship when there was anything to be gained by so 
doing. 

One day in the year 1782 a very pretty young 
woman had called at Louveciennes, informed Madame 
du Barry that she was a descendant of an illegitimate 
branch of the House of Valois, and, apparently un- 
aware that the lady before her was no longer a persona 
grata at Court, had begged her to present a petition 
on her behalf to Louis XVL, begging for the restora- 
tion of certain estates which had been granted to her 
family by Henri I., but had subsequently reverted to 
the Crown. This young woman was none other than 
the notorious Comtesse de la Motte, the adventuress 
whose machinations got the j^oor Cardinal de Rohan 
into such terrible hot water; and when the famous 
Diamond Necklace affair came on for trial, in 1786, 
before the Parliament of Paris, the ex-favourite was 
one of the witnesses examined. 

Madame du Barry's evidence does not appear to 
have been of much importance, and the only interesting 
part of it was her statement that on hearing that the 
order sent by La Motte to the jeweller Bohmer was 
signed "Marie Antoinette de France/' she had ex- 



304 MADAME DU BARRY 

claimed. "Why, there is no forgery there; that is her 
signature!" as she had remembered that the petition 
which she had been requested to present to the 
King bore the signature, "Marie Antoinette de France, 
de Saint-Remy de Valois/' However, the evidence 
against the adventuress was too overwhelming for this 
testimony in her favour to carry any weight."^ 

In her Memoires justiUcatifs, published in London 
shortly before her death, La Motte violently attacked 
Madame du Barry and asserted that the forged letters 
had been fabricated at the ex- favourite's house ; but the 
statements of so worthless a woman are, of course, 
utterly undeserving of credence. 

Apart from the above-mentioned incidents, and a 
visit which she received from the ambassadors whom 
Tippoo Sahib sent to France in 1788 to seek assistance 
against the English, and who came to Louveciennes to 
pay their court to its fair owner, in the belief that she 
was the mistress of the reigning and not of the late 
King, there is little in Madame du Barry's life to call 
for remark until the Revolution. She lived entirely 
at Louveciennes, visited occasionally by some stranger 
of distinction, "who came to see her as the most curi- 
ous relic of the last reign," and by a few intimate 
friends. The Marquise de Brunoy, wife of the spend- 
thrift son of the famous financier, Paris de Mont- 
martel, Madame de Souza, the Portuguese Ambassa- 
dress, and Madame Vigee Lebrun, the painter, were al- 
most the only friends of her own sex whom she saw; 
and these, with the Due de Brissac and a M. Monville, 
"an amiable and very elegant person," who lived in a 
chateau modelled on a Chinese padoga in the midst 
of an estate which he called "The Desert," seem to 
have formed her circle. 

In the Souvenirs of Madame Lebrun we find some 
"Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 70. 



MADAME DU BARRY 305 

interesting information about life at Louveciennes 
during these years. The magnificence of the Httle 
chateau, the writer tells us, which, with its busts, vases, 
columns, rare marbles, and other precious objects, 
*'gave you the impression that you were in the house 
of the mistress of several sovereigns, who had all en- 
riched her with their gifts," contrasted oddly with the 
simplicity observed by the countess both in her toilette 
and manner of living. Both in summer and winter 
Madame du Barry wore only white muslin or cot- 
ton-cambric peignoirs, and every day, no matter 
how severe the weather, she walked in the park and 
sometimes beyond it, "without feeling any ill 
effects, so much strengthened was she by her country 
life." 

In the evenings, when Madame Lebrun and her 
hostess were alone, they would sit by the fire, and the 
latter would occasionally speak of Louis XV. and his 
Court, ^'always with the greatest respect for the one 
and very cautiously about the other." But, as she 
avoided all details, and it was evident that she pre- 
ferred not to mention the subject, her conversation 
struck the disappointed auditor as rather uninteresting. 

Madame Lebrun expresses her conviction that 
Madame du Barry was "a good woman both in words 
and actions," and says that she was most benevolent 
and assisted all the poor people at Louveciennes. On 
one occasion, they went to visit a woman in the village 
who had just given birth to a child and was in great 
want. " *What !' cried Madame du Barry, 'you have 
had neither linen, wine, nor soup?' 'Alas! neither, 
madame.' As soon as she returned to the chateau, 
Madame du Barry sent for her housekeeper and the 
other servants who had not executed her orders. I 
cannot describe to you the indignation she was in, and 
she ordered them to make up a parcel of linen in her 



3o6 MADAME DU BARRY 

presence and take it at once to the poor woman, with 
soup and Bordeaux wine." 

Every day after dinner they adjourned to the 
famous paviHon for coffee. The first time Madame 
Lebrun entered it, the ex- favourite said: "It was in 
this room that Louis XV. did me the honour to dine 
with me. There was a tribune above for the musicians 
who played during the meal." When the Due de Bris- 
sac happened to be at Louveciennes, which appears 
to have been pretty frequently, he accompanied them; 
but it was his habit, as soon as he had finished his 
coffee, to throw himself on one of the luxurious 
couches in the salon and indulge in a siesta, leaving the 
ladies to stroll about the grounds. Madame Lebrun, 
however, is careful to tell us that ''nothing either in 
his manner or in that of Madame du Barry would have 
caused any one to suppose that he was anything more 
than a friend of the mistress of the chateau. 



J, 12 



The favourable opinion which Madame Lebrun 
formed of Madame du Barry was shared by another 
person who saw her for the first time about the same 
period, and whose impressions of the lady are of con- 
siderable interest, as from 1 751-1764 he had oc- 
cupied the post of ''introducteur des amhassadeiirs," 
and would, therefore, hardly have failed to remark 
upon the fact, had he observed in the ex-favourite any 
of that vulgarity and bad taste with which so many 
historians have charged her. 

This was the Comte Dufort de Cheverny, who met 
Madame du Barry, in 1785, at the house of a certain 
Don Olivadez de Pilos, a wealthy Spanish gentleman, 
who had fled to France to escape the vengeance of the 
Inquisition,'^ and had settled in Paris, where, according 

Souvenirs de Madame Vigee Lehrun, 1. 109, et seq. 
*^ Don Olavidez had been condemned as a heretic to the follow- 



MADAME DU BARRY 307 

to Grimm, he speedily forg-ot his misfortunes "amidst 
our theatres, our philosophers, our Aspasias, and some- 
times our Phrynes." Madame du Barry, Cheverny 
tells us, had "a marked veneration" for this victim of 
priestly intolerance, and was *'so to speak at his or- 
ders," and when, therefore, Don Olivadez informed 
her that he had some friends who were extremely anx- 
ious to be presented to her, she readily agreed to 
gratify their desire. 

"It was freezing hard enough to freeze a stone," 
the chronicler continues. "She arrived alone in a car- 
riage drawn by six horses. She was tall, extremely 
well made, and, in short, a very pretty woman in every 
respect. At the end of a quarter of an hour she was as 
much at her ease with us as we were with her. My 
wife was the only other lady present. Madame du 
Barry paid marked attention to my wife and the master 
of the house, but was pleasant and amiable to all. 
President de Salaberry^* and his nephew, the Chevalier 
de Pontgibault,^^ were there, and several others. She 
bore the brunt of the conversation, spoke of Louve- 
ciennes, and invited us to come and see it and dine with 

ing penalties: (i) To make a public recantation of his errors, 
" without prejudice to the confiscation of all his goods." (2) 
To be confined eight years in a monastery and subjected to the 
most rigorous discipline. (3) To be afterwards exiled twenty 
leagues from' any royal palace or important town. (4) Never 
to ride on horseback or in a coach. (5) Never to hold any office 
or enjoy any title. (6) Never to wear cloth, silk, or velvet, 
but to dress always in yellow serge. 

" Charles Victor Frangois d'lrumberry de Salaberry, President 
of the Chambre des Comptes. He perished on the scaffold in 
1794. He was the father of Charles Maurice dTrumberry, Comte 
de Salaberry, who fought in the wars in La Vendee and took a 
prominent part in politics after the Restoration, in which he 
distinguished himself by his reactionary tendencies. 

"The Chevalier de Pontgibault, or Pontgibaud, as the name Is 
commonly spelt, had accompanied La Fayette to America. His 
Memoires, wherein he relates his experiences during the War of 
Independence, are of considerable interest. 



3o8 MADAME DU BARRY 

her. We accepted the invitation, but without naming 
any particular day. 

"Her pretty face was slightly flushed; she told us 
that she took a cold bath every day. She showed 
us that under her long furred pelisse she had only 
her chemise and a very thin manteau de lit. Every- 
thing she wore was of such costly material, relics 
of her former splendour, that I have never seen 
finer batiste. She insisted that we should feel her 
petticoats, to prove to us how little she cared for 
the cold. 

"The dinner was delightful; she told us a hundred 
anecdotes about Versailles, all in her own style, and 
she was very interesting to listen to. Seeing that Pont- 
gibault wore the Cross of Cincinnatus, she related to 
us the following story : When I was at Versailles my 
name made a great impression, and I had six lackeys 
called footmen, the finest men that could be found; 
but they were the noisiest and most unruly rascals in 
all the world. The ringleader of them gave me so 
much trouble that he saw plainly that I should be 
obliged to dismiss him. It was at the beginning of the 
war in America, and he came to me and asked for 
letters of recommendation. I gave them to him, and 
he left me with a well-filled purse, and I was only too 
glad to get rid of him. A year ago he came to see me, 
and he was wearing the Cross of Cincinnatus.' We 
all laughed at the story, except the Chevalier de Pont- 
gibault. 

"The conversation after dinner took a more serious 
turn. She spoke with a charming frankness about the 
Due de Choiseul, and expressed regret for not having 
been on friendly terms with him ; she told us of all the 
trouble she had taken to bring about a better under- 
standing, and said that, had it not been for his sister, 
the Duchesse de Gramont, she would have succeeded 



MADAME DU BARRY 309 

in the end; she did not complain of any one and said 
nothing spiteful." 

Cheverny happening to mention that once, during 
her favour, he had made an unsuccessful atempt to 
obtain a post at Court for one of his friends, Madame 
du Barry exclaimed : "Why did you not come to me ? 
I wanted to oblige everybody. Ah ! if M. de Choiseul 
had but known me, instead of yielding to the counsels 
of interested persons, he would have kept his place and 
have given me some good advice, instead of which I 
was forced to fall into the hands of people whose in- 
terest is w!as to ruin us, and the King was no better 
off." 

When she had gone, Cheverny and his friends were 
unanimous in praise of the good humour with which 
she accepted her changed fortunes, and all agreed that 
they no longer felt any surprise at the influence she had 
exercised over a blase old man of sixty-four, "as she 
must have been a charming mistress."^* 

^^Memoires de Cheverny, ii. 22, et seq. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE year 1789 arrived. Posing for her portrait 
to Madame Lebrun in the gardens of Louve- 
ciennes, Madame du Barry was startled by the 
distant boom of the cannon which announced the 
taking of the Bastille and the end of the old regime, 
and which so frightened poor Madame Lebrun that she 
rushed off home the same day and never returned to 
finish the picture/ 

However, the former favourite continued to live 
quietly at Louveciennes, and except that she was made 
the heroine of a satirical and somewhat licentious 
poem by Saint- Just, the future colleague of Robes- 
pierre, and was attacked in an obscure newspaper 
called Le Petit Journal du Palais-Royal, ott AHfiches, 
Annonces, et Avis divers, which only survived for six 
numbers, no notice appears to have been taken of her 
during the first year of the Revolution/ 

*The head, however, had already been painted and the bust 
and arms traced out, and some years after the death of Madame 
du Barry the artist completed it. Madame Lebrun tells us that 
she painted two other portraits of her friend — the first, at half- 
length, " in a peignoir and straw hat " ; the oth'er, representing 
the countess " robed in white satin, with a wreath in one hand, 
and one of her arms resting on a pedestal." Both of these 
pictures had been commissioned by Brissac. 

^ Organf, poeme en vingt chants, au Vatican, 1789, was the title 
of Saint-Just's production. Madame du Barry, who figures un- 
der the name of Adelinde, is thus described : 

" Ces yeux errants sous leur paupiere brune, 
Ces bras d'ivoire etendus mollement, 
Ce sein de lait que le soupir agite 
Et sur lequel deux fraises surnageaient, 
Et cette bouche et vermeille et petite, 
Oi\ le corail et les perl'es brillaient, 
Au dieu d'amour les baisers demandaient." 
310 



MADAME DU BARRY 311 

Her lover, the Due de Brissac, in spite of the fact 
that he was, to a certain extent, in sympathy with the 
new ideas, was not so fortunate. A fortnight after 
the fall of the Bastille, while on his way to visit his 
estates in Anjou, he was arrested at Durtal, near La 
Fleche, and a courier despatched, by the local author- 
ities, to Paris to ascertain if his ' 'patriotism" was under 
suspicion, and whether he was to be imprisoned there 
or sent back tO' the capital. After a short detention, 
he was released, or contrived to effect his escape, and 
no further attempt was made to molest him for some 
time; but the incident foreshadowed the terrible fate 
which awaited him three years later. 

In the Notices historiques appended to his Memoir es 
de la Reine de France, by Laffont d'Aussonne, the fol- 
lowing passage occurs : 

''When the Revolution broke out, the house of 
Madame du Barry became the rendezvous of all the 
friends of Louis XVL and the Queen. The Gardes- 
du-corps who escaped the massacre of October 6 
dragged themselves from Versailles to Louveciennes, 
and the countess nursed them in her chateau as their 
own relatives would have done. The Queen, informed 
at Paris of this amiable and generous conduct on the 
part of the countess, charged some nobles in her con- 
fidence to go to Louveciennes and carry thither her 
sincere thanks. Upon this, Madame du Barry had the 
honour to address to the Queen the words I am about 
to transcribe. I had them from one of her relatives: 

" 'Madame. — The young men who were wounded 
only regret that they did not die along with their com- 
rades for a princess so perfect and so worthy of all 
respect as Your Majesty assuredly is. What I am do- 
ing for these brave soldiers is much less than they 



312 MADAME DU BARRY 

deserve. Had I had no waiting-women or other serv- 
ants, I would have attended to your guards myself. 
I console, I honour them for the wounds they have re- 
ceived, when I reflect that, but for their devotion and 
their wounds, Your Majesty might be no longer alive. 

" 'Luciennes is at your disposal, Madame. Is it not 
to your favour and kindness that I owe it ?* All that I 
possess is derived from the Royal Family, and I have 
too much good feeling and gratitude ever to forget 
that. The late King, by a sort of presentiment, made 
me accept a number of valuable presents before send- 
ing me away from his person. I had the honour to 
offer you this treasure at the time of the meeting of 
the Notables.* I offer it you again, Madame, with 
eagerness and in all sincerity; you have so many ex- 
penses to bear and benefits without number to bestow. 
Permit me, I beg, to render unto Caesar the things that 
are Caesar's. 

" ^Your Majesty's most faithful subject and servant, 

" *COMTESSE DU BaRRY." '" 

Laffont d'Aussonne is not a chronicler in whom 
very much confidence is reposed, and this, combined 
with the fact that the style and orthography of the 
above letter are much superior to those of Madame du 
Barry's which we possess, has caused its authenticity 
to be doubted. M. Vatel, however, discovered that 
two of the wounded Gardes-du-corps did take refuge 

' She means that it was due to the magnanimity of the King 
and Queen that she had been allowed to retain Louveciennes 
after the death of Louis XV. 

*In February 1787, Calonne, the Comptroller-General, called 
together an extraordinary council or assembly of notables, 
nominated by the King, and proposed to them the reform of the 
entire system of administration and taxation. This assembly, 
however, composed almost entirely of privileged persons, was 
unfavourable to the proposed reforms, and Calonne soon after- 
wards resigned. 



MADAME DU BARRY 313 

at Louveciennes after the events of October 6, and that 
their names were Marion de Barghon-Monteil and 
Lefebvre de Lubersac, and his conclusion is that the 
circumstances as stated by Laffont d'Aussonne are cor- 
rect, though the letter is probably a paraphrase of the 
one written by the ex-favourite. There was certainly 
nothing surprising in Marie Antoinette sending to 
thank Madame du Barry for her care of the soldiers 
wounded by her defence, while it was but natural that 
the favourite should acknowledge the Queen's con- 
descension. 

With regard to the offer made at the time of the 
meeting of the Notables, M. Vatel professes himself 
unable to discover any proof of this ''in spite of per- 
severing researches"; but it is certain that the King 
received a number of offers of this kind, both from 
private individuals and corporations.^ 

Every day the situation became more serious ; every 
day it became more and more apparent that for the 
despotism of the Crown France was substituting the 
infinitely worse despotism of the mob. Most of the 
great nobles followed the example of the Comte 
d'Artois and took refuge across the frontier; but Bris- 
sac, though well aware of the fate which awaited him 
were the enemies of the Monarchy to triumph, coura- 
geously refused to desert his sovereign and remained 
at his post. 

And Madame du Barry remained too. Love, and 
possibly also the knowledge that her departure would 
almost inevitably entail the confiscation of her property, 
kept her at Louveciennes — that beautiful spot from 
whose terrace she could perceive the spires of the great 
city so soon to run red with blood. Nor at first did 
she have any reason to regret her decision, for the 
year 1790, so fruitful in great events, was for her as 
* Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 132. 



314 MADAME DU BARRY 

uneventful as had been its predecessor f and it is quite 
possible that the storms of the Revolution might have 
passed her by unscathed had it not been for an un- 
fortunate incident, which served to draw public atten- 
tion to her ill-gotten wealth, and was ultimately the 
means of bringing her to the scaffold. 

On January lo, 1791, Madame du Barry attended a 
fete given by the Due de Brissac at his hotel in the 
Rue de Crenelle Saint-Germain. The countess had, it 
appears, intended to return to Louveciennes that eve- 
ning, but, at the duke's suggestion, changed her mind 
and slept at the Hotel de Brissac, where a suite of 
rooms was always reserved for her use. Well indeed 
would it have been for her had she carried out her 
original intention, as, early on the morrow, a mes- 
senger arrived in hot haste from Louveciennes with the 
news that the previous night a gang of burglars had 
broken into the chateau and made off with the greater 
part of the countess's jewellery.'^ 

In great agitation, Madame du Barry at once re- 
turned home, gave information of the robbery to the 
local authorities, and then sent for her jeweller, Rouen, 
to consult him as to the best means of recovering her 
stolen treasures. 

^ She was, however, the object of an attack in Marat's journal, 
L'Ami du Peuple, which, in its issue of Thursday, November 11, 
1790, informed its readers that the National Assembly cost only 
a quarter of the money which " that old sinner," Louis XV., had 
squandered on his favourite wanton, and added that the writer 
of the article had seen the Du Barry, twenty years before, 
" covered with diamonds and giving away the louis d'or of the 
nation by the basketful to her thieves of relations." 

' Madame du Barry's jewel-cases were kept in the ante- 
chamber leading to her bedroom. A soldier belonging to the 
Suisses rouges, quartered at Courbevoie, was on guard outside 
the chateau during the night; and, before leaving home, the 
countess had given orders that, in the event of her not returning 
till the morrow, the gardener was to sleep in the ante-chamber. 
As, however, it was not easy to put up a bed in this room, 



MADAME DU BARRY 315 

Now, Rouen was a very capable craftsman and an 
honest man; but he appears to have been singularly 
wanting in discretion ; for no sooner was he acquainted 
with the extent of the disaster than he hastened back 
to Paris, and, without giving a thought to the delicate 
position occupied by his patroness in the face of the 
Revolution, caused a handbill to be circulated through 
the city bearing this sensational title : 

''Two Thousand Louis Reward.'^ 
''Diamonds and Jewels lost.'' 

Then follows a portentously long list of the stolen 
treasures : diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds 
in every shape and form; rings, pendants, earrings, 
watches, and bracelets; "a pair of shoe-buckles com- 
posed of eighty-four brilliants, weighing seventy-seven 
carats and a quarter"; "a cross of sixteen brilliants, 
weighing eight to ten grains each" ; "a beautiful pair 
of sprigs composed of large brilliants, valued at 
120,000 livres"; "a string of four hundred pearls, 
weighing four to five grains each" ; "a pair of sleeve- 
buttons consisting of an emerald, a sapphire, a yellow 
diamond, and a ruby, the whole encircled by rose 
diamonds, weighing thirty-six to forty grains" ; a pair 
of bracelets of six rows of pearls weighing four to five 
grains each ; at the bottom of the bracelet is an emerald 
surmounted by a cipher in diamonds, an L on one and 
a D and B on the other, and two padlocks of four bril- 

Morin, her head valef-de-chambre, had taken upon himself to 
dispense with the attendance of the gardener; while the robbers 
had taken the precaution to entertain the Swiss at a neighbour- 
ing cabaret, with the result that he became temporarily unfit for 
duty. Then, with the aid of a ladder which had been left near 
the house, they mounted to the window of the ante-chamber, 
broke the outside shutters, cut out a pane of glass, opened the 
window, and ransacked the room at th'eir leisure. 



3i6 MADAME DU BARRY 

Hants, weighing eight to ten grains." It was a veritable 
inventory of Golconda.^ 

The effect of this ill-judged production on the minds 
of the exited, half -starved ''patriots" who perused it 
can well be imagined. Instantly, the revolutionary 
Press, ever on the alert to fan the flame of popular re- 
sentment, rang with denunciations of the ex-mistress. 
Prudhomme's journal, Les Revolutions de Paris, led 
the way and published an article in which it accused 
Madame du Barry of inventing the robbery: "It is 
thought that the lady, fearing that her income would 
be cut short, wanted to excite pity by representing 
herself as the victim of a regrettable incident and 
gaining thereby the indulgence of the inflexible Na- 
tional Assembly." 

Elsewhere the same journal made a violent attack on 
the countess, who, it is alleged, had, on discovering the 
robbery, driven off to Courbevoie in a coach and four, 
and obtained from the commanding officer of the 
Gardes Suisses a body of fifty men to arrest the 
drunken sentry, "a young man eighteen years of age, 
of an amiable appearance and very honest." *'The 
theft of all the diamonds of Golconda," continued the 
indignant writer, **would not justify such a violation 
of the rights of man and of the citizen, and, moreover, 
is it a sufficiently grave offence to deserve the punish- 
ment of being placed in irons, on the simple suspicion 
of a woman, still proud of having been for a moment 
the first courtesan of the empire ?" 

Madame du Barry appears to have been too much 
occupied in endeavouring to trace her lost property to 
pay much attention to the attacks of Prudhomme and 
his confreres, which, however, were to bear fruit in due 

® See the list of the stolen jewellery published by the Gk)»-= 
courts in La Du Barry, p. ^73^ ^^ ^^Q- 



MADAME DU BARRY 317 

season. But, though she engaged the services of Bar- 
thelemy Piles, one of the most skilful police-agents of 
the day, nothing was heard of the stolen jewels for up- 
wards of a month, when a courier arrived from Eng- 
land, with the information that the thieves had been 
arrested in London. The gang consisted of five per- 
sons : three German Jews, a Frenchman, who called 
himself a broker and wore the uniform of the National 
Guard, and an Englishman named Harris, who actet? 
as interpreter, and who, acco^rding to the Public Ad- 
vertiser (February 17, 1791), had already undergone 
a term of penal servitude. 

On arriving in London, they had gone to> an inn and 
engaged a single room, from which it is to be presumed 
that the old proverb which tells us that there is honour 
among thieves did not hold good in their case, and that 
each of them was fearful of letting his confederates 
out of his sight. They had no money, but quieted the 
landlord's objections by telling him that by the morrow 
they would be in possession of a considerable sum. 
They then went out and called upon a rich jeweller, 
named Simon, to whom they offered a portion of their 
booty at about one-sixth of its value. Simon paid 
them £1,500, and then inquired if they had any more 
to sell. They replied in the affirmative, whereupon, his 
suspicions aroused, the jeweller laid information 
against them before the Lord Mayor, who immediately 
issued a warrant for their arrest. 

The day after receiving the news of the apprehen- 
sion of the burglars, Madame du Barry set out for 
England^ accompanied by one of Brissac's aides-de- 
camp, the Chevalier d'Escourre, the jeweller Rouen, a 
waiting-woman, and two menservants, and arrived in 
London on February 20. "Madame du Barry," writes 
Horace Walpole to the Berrys on February 26, "is 
come over to recover her jewels, of which she has been 



3i8 MADAME DU BARRY 

robbed — not by the National Assembly, but by four 
Jews, who have been seized here and committed to 
Newgate. Though the late Lord Barrymore acknowl- 
edged her husband tO' be of his noble blood, will she 
own the present Earl as a relation when she finds him 
turned strolling player?^ If she regains her diamonds, 
perhaps Mrs. Hastings may carry her to Court."'" 

Two days later he returns to the subject: 

''Madaine du Barry was to go and swear to her 
jewels lefore the Lord Mayor. Boydell, who is a little 
better bred than Monsieur Bailly,"^ made excuses for 
being obliged to administer the oath chez hii, but 
begged she would name her hour, and when she did, he 
fetched her himself in the state-coach and had a Mayor- 
Royal banquet ready for her. She has got most of her 
jewels again. I want the King to send her four Jews 
to the National Assembly and tell them it is the change 
or la monnaie of Lord George Gordon, the Israelite.'"'' 

In a subsequent letter (March 5) Walpole writes: 
"I have not a tittle to add — but that the Lord Mayor 
did not fetch Madame du Barry in the City-Royal 
coach, but kept her to dinner. She is gone, but re- 
turns in April." 

The lady had, in fact, left England on March i. 
During her stay she had been confronted with the 
thieves, but had stated that she had never seen any of 
them before. On the other hand, Rouen had identified 

® For an account of the theatrical undertakings of Richard, 
Earl of Barrymore, see Mr. J. B. Robinson's interesting work, 
" The last Earls of Barrj^more." 

^^ " Mrs. Hastings was supposed, by the party violence of the 
day, to have received immense bribes of diamonds." — Note of 
Wright. 

"Jean Sylvain Bailly, Mayor of Paris, the celebrated astron- 
omer. 

" Lord George Gordon, who was then undergoing a sentence 
of five years' imprisonment for libel, had appealed to the Na- 
tional Assembly to intercede for his release. 



MADAME DU BARRY 319 

the jewels, in spite of the fact that several of them had 
been defaced, and had declared them to be "the result 
of his laborious toil/' 

The expenses of this first journey, which the Due 
de Brissac, who looked upon himself as the involuntary 
cause of the robbery, had insisted on defraying, 
amounted to 6193 livres. 

At the end of a month, Madame du Barry was 
obliged to return to London, where a serious legal 
difficulty had arisen. As the robbery had been com- 
mitted in a foreign country, the delinquents could not 
be brought to trial in England, nor, unless a special 
application was made for the purpose by the French 
Government, could they be even detained in custody 
or sent to France for trial. The utmost satisfaction 
that Madame du Barry could obtain would be to have 
her property restored to her, but before she could hope 
for this, many legal formalities must be complied 
with.^^ 

The countess left Louveciennes on April 4 and ar- 
rived in London five days later. She was again accom- 
panied by d'Escourre and Rouen, and was furnished 
by her bankers, the Vandengyers, with a letter of 
credit on Simmonds and Hankey, of London. She 
had also taken the precaution — a very necessary one at 
a time when everybody leaving France ran the risk of 
being promptly registered as an emigre and having 
their property confiscated — of procuring a passport 
from the Minister Montmorin." 



'^^ St. James's Chronicle, February 24, 1791. 
" Here is the passport • 



"De Par Le Roy, 

" A tous officiers civils et militaires charges de surveiller et 
maintenir Fordre public dans I'es differens departemens du ro- 
yaume et a tous autres qu'il appartiendra ; salut. Nous vous 
mandons et ordonnons que vous ayiez a laisser passer librement 
la dame du Barry allant a Londres avec le S. d'Escours, chevalier 



320 MADAME DU BARRY 

We have very little information about Madame du 
Barry's movements during- this visit, the expenses of 
which amounted to over 15,000 livres, inclusive of the 
purchase of two English horses. She appears, how- 
ever, to have found a welcome in very exclusive circles 
indeed, for, on April 17, Walpole writes to Miss Berry 
that the previous day the countess had dined with the 
Duke of Queensberry, and that among the guests was 
the Prince of Wales. It would be interesting to know 
what the First Gentleman in Europe and she who, for 
a brief period, had been the first lady in France thought 
of one another; but, unfortunately, Walpole does not 
tell us. 

Madame du Barry reached Louceviennes on Satur- 
day, May 21, but during the night of the 23rd a courier 
arrived to inform her that her presence in London was 
indispensable, and, on the following day, she set out 
for England for the third time. In spite, however, 
of the powerful influences that she was able to enlist 
in her favour and the expenditure of a great deal of 
money, the affair dragged on — it seems to have been 
begun in a very careless manner and to have been 
conducted still more carelessly — and it was not until 
towards the end of August that it was finally decided 
that, as the robbery had not taken place within English 
jurisdiction, the burglars must be acquitted, and that 
Madame du Barry must obtain from the French courts 
a condemnation of the culprits and a declaration that 
the property was really hers. Pending the proof of 
her claim to their possession, the jewels were placed 

de S. Louis, le S. Rouen, jouaillier, deux femmes et un valet de 
chambre et deux couriers. 

" Sans lui donner ni souffrir qu*il tut soit donne aucun em- 
pechement; le present passe-port valable pour trois semaines 
seulement. 

"Donne a Paris, le 3 Avril 1791. 

Par Le Roy „^^^^^_„ 



MADAME DU BARRY 321 

in a sealed box and deposited with Messrs. Ransom, 
Morley, and Hammersley, bankers, of Pall Mall. 

During this, her third visit to England, Madame du 
Barry rented a house in Bruton Street, Berkeley 
Square, and, notwithstanding her anxiety to regain 
possession of her beloved diamonds, seems to have had 
a very pleasant time. She mixed freely in English 
society, and we hear of her at several celebrated houses, 
notably at the Duke of Queensberry's, where Horace 
Walpole made her acquaintance and ''had a good deal 
of frank conversation with her about Monsieur de 
Choiseul."^ She also visited some of the French 
emigres who had found refuge in London — a very 
unwise proceeding, as it subsequently proved — went to 
St. Paul's, the Tower, and Ranelagh, gave away a con- 
siderable sum in charity, and made numerous pur- 
chases : a portrait of the Prince of Wales and another 
of the Duchess of Rutland, *'two English books," for 
the Prince de Beauvau, with whom she was now on 
very friendly terms, and Thomas Paine's "Rights of 
Man," and a Shakespeare in parts, for herself. 

Perhaps, however, the most interesting incident of 
her stay was her visit to the studio of the celebrated 
painter Cosway, to wlhom she sat for the charming 
miniature portrait which Conde's fine engraving has 
perpetuated for us, and which is certainly the most 
pleasing of all the portraits of Madame du Barry. 

The former favourite is represented in a white gown 
with a high waist, a toilette which seems to anticipate 
the fashion of the Directory. Her head is turned 
slightly aside, a string of pearls encircles her throat, 
her hair is loose and falls in luxuriant curls over her 
shoulders, her eyes sparkle with merriment through 
their half -closed lids, a half -smile plays round her 
mouth. It is indeed hard to believe that this exquisite 
"Letter to the Berrys, August 2Z, 1791. 



^22 MADAME DU BARRY 

miniature, "in which one seems to see the portrait of 
the Voluptuousness of the eighteenth century : a Bac- 
chante of Greuze,'"' is that of a woman in her forty- 
eighth year. 

Madame du Barry landed in France on August 25, 
1 79 1, and proceeded to Louveciennes, where she re- 
mained until October 14, 1792, that is to say, for more 
than thirteen months. 

" E. and J. de Gon court's La Du Barry, p. 215. 



CHAPTER XXII 

DURING Madame du Barry's absence in Eng- 
land, important changes had taken place in 
France. Since the flight to Varennes, in the 
previous June, it was impossible for the country to 
have any further confidence in its King, and although 
the unhappy monarch continued to reign, his authority 
v^as reduced to the merest shadow. He was still, how- 
ever, permitted to retain most of the outward and vis- 
ible signs of sovereignty; and one of the first acts of 
the Legislative Assembly, when it met on October i, 
1 79 1, was to appoint a Garde constitutionelle^ to take 
the place of his disbanded bodyguard. 

This Garde constitutionelle, which consisted of 600 
cavalry and 1,200 infantry chosen from the troops 
of the line or the National Guards, was recruited very 
differently from the old Maison du Roi, and no one 
was allowed to be enrolled unless he had given "proofs 
of citizenship." The choice, however, of its com- 
mander and one-third of the officers was left to the 
King; and Louis, in spite of the remonstrances of 
Marie Antoinette, who still regarded with disfavour 
all who continued on terms of intimacy with Madame 
du Barry, offered the command to Brissac,^ trusting, 
in his secret heart, that the latter would give a very 

* According to Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, when the flight of 
the Royal Family was first contemplated, Brissac was suggested 
as the man best qualified to carry out the scheme ; but the pro- 
posal was rejected, as it was feared that he might confide the 
secret to Madame du Barry, and that she might reveal it. 

Memoirs— 11 Z^z Vol. 2 



324 MADAME DU BARRY 

liberal interpretation to the intentions of the Assembly 
with regard to the proofs of citizenship. 

The duke accepted the appointment, though with 
many misgivings, for the dangers attending his new 
office were obvious. Nor were his fears groundless, 
as, before many weeks had passed, hostile criticisms 
of the manner in which he was discharging his 
duties began to appear in the Press. These soon 
changed to violent denunciations, and, finally, the Leg- 
islative Assembly intervened, and on the nights of May 
30-31, 1792, after a lengthy and acrimonious debate, 
that body decreed that the Garde constitution^lle 
should be disbanded, and its commander be forthwith 
arrested and arraigned on a charge oi treason before 
the High Court, then sitting at Orleans. 

It was one o'clock on the morning of the 31st when 
the decree was passed, and Gabriel de Choiseul, who 
was present, hurried to the Tuileries to inform the 
King and Queen. Louis at once sent a message to 
Brissac's apartments in the palace, urging him to make 
his escape without a moment's delay. Brissac, how- 
ever, was not the man to desert his post, and answered 
that he would remain and abide by the consequences. 
He then rose, and spent the rest of the night in writing 
a long letter to his mistress, which he despatched to 
Louveciennes by Mussabre, one of his aides-de-camp. 

It would appear to have been on the previous even- 
ing, while the debate in the Assembly was proceeding, 
that Madame du Barry wrote to the duke as follows : 

Madame Du Barry to the Due de Brissac. 

" Wednesday, 11 o'clock* 
*T was seized with a mortal fear, M. le Due, when 
M. de Maussabre was announced. He assured me that 

* M. Vatel is of opinion that this letter was written on July 6, 
that is to say, some days after the arrest of the duke and his 



MADAME DU BARRY 325 

you were in good health, and that you had the tran- 
quilHty of a good conscience. But this is not enough 
for my interest in you ; I am far from you ; I know not 
what you intend to do. Of course you will answer 
that you yourself do not know, and I am sending the 
abbe' to find out what is happening and what you are 
doing. Oh! why am I not near you? You would 
receive the consolation of tender and faithful friend- 
ship. I know that you would have nothing to fear did 
reason and honesty reign in the Assembly. 

"Adieu ! I have no time to say more. The abbe is in 
my room, and I want to send him off as quickly as 
possible. I shall not rest until I know what has become 
of you. I am well assured that you have done your 
duty with regard to the formation of the King's Guard, 
and on this point I have no fear for you. Your con- 
duct has been so open ever since you have resided at 
the Tuileries that they will find no charge against you. 
Your 'patriotic actions' have been so numerous that in- 
deed I wonder what they can impute to you. 

"Adieu. Let me hear from you, and never doubt my 
affection for you."* 

At six o'clock that morning Brissac was arrested and 
conducted the same day to Orleans. The popular exas- 
peration against him was such that special precautions 
had to be taken to guard him against attack; but the 

departure for Orleans, which took place on May 31. But, in her 
examination on the 9th Brumaire (October 19, 1793), Madame 
du Barry, when questioned as to the date, answered that she 
wrote the letter "on the samfe day that he (Brissac) started for 
Orleans, or the evening before/' She added ^ that it was never 
sent, " as she had news of him from one of his people.'* 

^The Abbe Billiardi, of the Foreign Office, a great friend of 
the lovers. 

* Trihunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, 
Archives nationales. E. and J. de Goncourt's La du Barry, p. 
225. 



S26 MADAME DU BARRY 

journey was uneventful, and, a few days later, Madame 
du Barry received, though Maussabre, a letter from the 
duke announcing his safe arrival. Although Brissac 
would not appear to have shown much anxiety at his 
position, probably from a desire not to alarm his 
friends, the latter were fully alive to the grave dangers 
which threatened him ; and his daughter, the Duchesse 
de Mortemart, who had emigrated, with her husband, 
at the beginning of the Revolution and was now at 
Aix-la-Chapelle, wrote to Madame du Barry begging 
for information concerning her father. ** 

The Duchesse de Mortemart to Madame du 

Barry. 

"June 5. 

"Will you recognise my handwriting, Madame? It 
is three years since you saw it, and at a sad moment.^ 
This is sadder still for your affection and mine. Ah! 
how I have suffered for the last two days ! His cour- 
age, his firmness, the praises which are showered upon 
him, the regrets which are expressed, his innocence, 
nothing can quiet my agitated mind. M. de . . .^ and 
myself wished to start the day before yesterday; but 
several powerful persons dissuaded us from doing so, 
pointing out that it would be dangerous for my hus- 
band and be of no advantage to my father, and adding 

^On leaving France, in 1789, Madame de Mortemart had 
written to Madame du Barry: "Madame,—! beg that you will 
accept my best thanks for the kindness you have always shown 
me, and believe that I deeply regret not being able to see you 
b'efore leaving. I feel very sad at the thought that I shall be so 
long without seeing my father, and that I cannot even take 
leave of him before I set out. But there is nothing left for me, 
except to submit to my fate. I beg that you will kindly accept 
th'e assurance of my affection for you." 

From the above letter it would appear that the duchess re- 
garded her father's passion for Madame du Barry with com- 
placence, and was on very friendly terms with the latter, 

^Mortemart, without doubt. 



MADAME DU BARRY 327 

that the fact of his being an emigre would injure him. 
But I, Madame, could not I be of some service to him? 
might it not be possible for me to see him ? Can it be 
imputed as a crime to a woman in delicate health to 
have gone to take the waters, and must it be visited on 
my father? I cannot believe it, and it is the only 
thing of which I am afraid. If you think that I could 
be of any use to him either at Paris or Orleans, have 
the kindness to let me know, and I will fly thither. Is 
there any means of hearing from him or communicat- 
ing with him? Send me word, I entreat you, and I 
will hasten to take advantage of it. I learned, through 
a man who is, perhaps, unknown to you" (the name, 
written between parentheses, is erased) ''that you had 
gone to Orleans. Let me tell you that such token of 
attachment for one who is dear to me gives you an 
eternal claim on my gratitude. Accept, I beg of you, 
the assurance of the affection which I have for you 
for life. 

"Allow me to curtail the usual compliments at the 
end of letters, and give me the same mark of friend- 
ship. I send this letter through a reliable person at 
Paris, who, I trust, will be able to forward it to you 
without inconvenience. Pardon my scribble. 



>>7 



Whether Madame du Barry went to Orleans, as the 
duchess's informant stated, is doubtful. According to 
one writer, she not only did so, but took with her a 
considerable sum of money, in the hope of bribing 
Brissac's gaolers to connive at his escape. But it 
seems very difficult to believe that the duke, who, as 
we have seen, had made no attempt to escape on the 
night when his arrest was decreed by the Legislative 
Assembly, when he could have done so with the cer- 
tainty of success, would have consented to a plan 
' Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 163. 



328 MADAME DU BARRY 

■which must have presented many obstacles, and which, 
in case of failure, must have gravely compromised his 
mistress; while, on the other hand, the ex-favourite's 
presence in Orleans, by awakening memories of the 
scandalous past, would have undoubtedly injured the 
prisoner. 

Brissac was incarcerated in an old convent in the 
Rue Illiers. He was examined on June 15, but hardly 
attempted to justify himself. When charged with 
admitting royalists into the Garde constitutionelle , he 
merely denied it: "I have admitted into the King's 
Guard no one but citizens who fulfilled all the condi- 
tions contained in the decree of formation." 

He was taken back to prison, but does not seem 
to have been kept in very close custody, and was per- 
mitted to communicate with his friends; for on June 
20 Madame de Mortemart informs Madame du Barry 
that she had had a letter from her father. 

TheDuchesse de Mortemart ^0 Madame du Barry. 

*'/une 20. 

"A million thanks, Madame, for the news which you 
have so kindly sent me. Your letter has been delayed, 
and I only received it together with one from my 
father, which has afforded me great pleasure. Since 
then I have heard that he has been examined, and is no 
longer in close confinement. He is now as comfortable 
as a prisoner can be. Although he is known to be 
innocent, I fear that the proceedings will last a long 
while. I should have rejoiced had I been able to have 
been of any use to him or given him any pleasure in 
his confinement. Adieu, Madame. Pardon my scrib- 
ble. Be assured of my love for life." 

But neither daughter nor mistress were ever to be- 
^ Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 167. 



MADAME DU BARRY 329 

hold the prisoner at Orleans again. The ill-advised 
manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, the declaration 
that the country was in danger, the arrival in Paris of 
the Marseillais and thousands of enthusiastic volun- 
teers on their way to the frontier, roused the excited 
populace to madness; and a few weeks after Madame 
de Mortemart's letter was written, the storm which 
had so long been gathering burst in all its fury. 

After the storming of the Tuileries and the mas- 
sacres which followed, Brissac and his fellow prison- 
ers could no longer disguise from themselves the ter- 
rible danger which menaced them; and on the very 
day on which the news of the events of August 10 
reached him-, the duke asked for writing materials, 
and, with his own hand, drew up his will. 

Having appointed the Duchesse de Mortemart his 
residuary legatee and made provision for various rela- 
tives and dependents, the testator recommended very 
earnestly to his daughter ''a lady who was very dear 
to him, and whom the evils of the time might plunge 
into the greatest distress," and then added the follow- 
ing codicil: 

"I give and bequeath to Madame du Barry, of Lou- 
veciennes, above and beyond what I owe her, a yearly 
income for life of 24,000 livres, free from all condi- 
tions; or, again, the use and enjoyment for life of my 
estate of la Rambaudiere and la Graffiniere, in Poitou, 
and the movables belonging to it; or, yet again, a 
lump sum of 300,000 livres payable in cash ; whichever 
she may prefer. When once she has accepted either 
of the three legacies mentioned, the other two will be- 
come void. I beg her to accept this small token of 
my gratitude, I being so much the more her debtor in 
that / was the involuntary cause of the loss of her dia- 
monds, and that If ever she succeeds in regaining them 



330 MADAME DU BARRY 

from England, those which will be lost, added to the 
expenses incurred in the various journe3^s which their 
recovery has rendered necessary, will amount to a total 
equivalent to the value of this legacy. I request my 
daughter to prevail upon her to accept it. My knowl- 
edge of her (his daughter's) heart assures me that 
she will punctually disburse whatever sums she may 
be called upon to pay in order to fulfil my will and 
codicil. My wish is that none of the other legacies be 
paid over until this one has been discharged in full. 

"Written and signed with my own hand at Orleans, 
this August II, 1792. 

"Louis-Hercule-Timoleon de Cosse-Brissac."* 

The same day, the duke wrote the following letter 
to Madame du Barry, the only one, unfortunately, of 
those sent from Orleans which has been preserved : 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 
"Saturday, August 11, Orleans, 6 p. m. 

"I received this morning the most amiable of let- 
ters, and one which has gladdened my heart more than 
any which I have received for a long while. I kiss 
you thousands and thousands of times; yes, you will 
be my last thoug'ht. 

"We are in ignorance of all particulars" (of the 
events of August 10); 'T groan and shudder. Ah! 
dear heart, would that I could be with you in a wilder- 
ness rather than in Orleans, which is a very wearisome 
place to be in."^" 

^Le Roi's Curiosites historiques, p. 287. The legacy of the 
duke to Madame du Barry was almost entirely absorbed by the 
creditors of the lady, and by a lawsuit between the Becus and the 
Gomards — both of which families claimed to be her heirs — 
which lasted from 1814 to 1830. 

" Trihunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, 
Archives nationales. On this letter is written : " Un mois avant 
sa mort." 



MADAME DU BARRY 331 

''You will he my last thought/' These words must 
have seemed to Madame du Barry a presentim.ent of 
approaching disaster, and an event which occurred a 
few days after she received her lover's letter increased 
her fears for his safety. 

The duke's aide-de-camp, Maussabre, happened to 
be at the Tuileries when the palace was attacked by 
the mob on the morning of August 10, and had taken 
part in its defence. He was wounded, and, like the 
Gardes-du-Corps three years earlier, took refuge at 
Louveciennes, where Madame du Barry concealed him 
in a room in the pavilion. He imagined himself in 
safety, but his hopes were vain, for a band of local 
Jacobins, eager to emulate the deeds of their Paris 
brethren, came to search the house, and the wretched 
lad — he was but eighteen — was torn from his hiding- 
place and dragged away to Paris, prison, and death." 

The invasion of her house showed but too plainly 
that the unpopularity of Brissac was gradually envel- 
oping his mistress, and that she was regarded as his 
accomplice; and the Courrier frangais, in its issue of 
September 2, announced the countess's arrest, no doubt 
with the intention of still further inflaming public 
opinion against her : 

^'Madame du Barry has been arrested at Louvecien- 
nes, and has been brought to Paris. It was ascer- 
tained that the old heroine of the late Government was 
constantly sending emissaries to Orleans. M. de Bris- 
sac's aide-de-camp had been arrested at her house. It 
was thought — and there was good reason for doing 
so — that these frequent messages had some other pur- 
pose than love, which Madame du Barry must now 
forget. As the mistress and confidential friend of the 
Due de Brissac, she shared his wealth and his pleas- 

"He was murdered during the September massacres: see p. 
345, infra. 



2,z^ MADAME DU BARRY 

ures; who knows if she does not, at the same time, 
share his anti-revolutionary ambition? 

*'It will be piquant reading- for our descendants 
when they learn that Madame du Barry was arrested 
almost simultaneously with the pulling down of the 
statue of the Maid of Orleans. She was arrested dur- 
ing the night of the 30th-3ist, about 2 a.m." 

On the same day on which this article appeared 
began the frightful massacres which deluged the pris- 
ons with blood; and while these atrocities still con- 
tinued, Madame du Barry received intelligence that 
Brissac and the rest of the Orleans prisoners were to 
be transferred to Paris. It appeared that several of 
those confined in the convent in the Rue Illiers had 
contrived to effect their escape, while four others, who 
had been tried by the High Court, had been acquitted. 
The fear that yet more of their destined victims might 
succeed in evading their doom roused the indignation 
of the more sanguinary of the Paris revolutionists, and 
petitions from the sections and the clubs demanding 
that the remaining prisoners should be immediately 
brought to Paris for trial poured in upon the Assem- 
bly." The Assembly, dismayed at the scenes of blood- 
shed which were being enacted around it, and well 
aware wihat would be the result of compliance with 
such a demand, could not bring itself to consent, until 
its hand was forced by a body of volunteers from Mar- 
seilles, who set out for Orleans, with the intention of 
bringing back the prisoners ; whereupon Fournier" was 

"At the same time, a pamphlet, 'entitled Tetes a prix, was 
being circulated in Paris, the writer of which offered 12,000 
livres — he did not say by whom the money was to be paid — ^to 
the man who should " make a little Saint-Denis of M. Timoleon 
Cosse-Brissac." 

" Surnamed I'Americaln, as he had spent some years of his life 
in San Domingo. He was one of the most violent of Jacobins, 
and had taken a prominent part in the attack on the Bastille, the 
affair in the Champ de Mars, and the events of August 10. 



MADAME DU BARRY 333 

despatched at the head of 1800 of the National Guard, 
with instructions to conduct the prisoners not to the 
capital but to the Chateau of Saumur. Fournier, how- 
ever, misunderstood, or, more probably, deliberately 
disobeyed, his orders, and, when Brissac and his com- 
panions had been handed over to him, took the road to 
Paris. 

Madame du Barry learned of the duke's removal 
from Orleans from a letter which is supposed to have 
been written by the Chevalier d'Escourre, the tone of 
which was far from calculated to reassure her: 



The Chevalier d'Escourre (?) to Madame du 

Barry. 

** Paris, September 6. 

''The Orleans prisoners are to arrive to-morrow at 
Versailles. It is to be hoped that they will arrive safe 
and sound, and that, by gaining time, their lives will 
be saved. Besides, the Assembly is tired of so much 
bloodshed and proposes to grant an amnesty. The 
sacrifice is not a very great one, seeing that none of 
them are guilty. 

"I have been to see the editor of the Courrier fran" 
gais, who will to-morrow retract the false article about 
you. I promised him a reward, if the article was sat- 
isfactory. 

"I have received from Orleans ten letters for the 
deputies, imploring them to avert the terrible fate 
which awaits the prisoners. At Orleans, it is believed 
that as soon as they arrive, they will be murdered. 

"I had the letters delivered at once. Madame de 
Maurepas, when she heard of the duke's transfer, 
wished to go at once to the Assembly, but was dis- 
suaded from doing so. She then wrote to Danton and 
the Abbe Fauchet. Madame de Flammarens and I 



334 MADAME DU BARRY 

took the letters, and the Abbe Fauchet was much in- 
terested in them. 

'Toor Maussabre would have been spared, had he 
not lost his head. He tried to hide in a chimney ; they 
lighted straw to stifle him and force him to come 
down; he fell, and they shot him without listening to 
his appeals for mercy. 

"I am cast down body and soul; I shall only be 
at rest when I know the duke is at Versailles. If it 
is possible to get through, I will send some one, if I 
cannot go myself. Do you also send some one, 
but above all be careful and avoid taking any steps 
which might be made public and be injurious to 
you both." ' 



JJU 



Brissac and his fellow captives, to the number of 
fifty-three, left Orleans on September 3, in tumbrils 
supplied by a force of artillery stationed in the neigh- 
bourhood, escorted by the National Guards and the 
Marseillais. The authorities saw them depart with 
considerable misgivings, though Fournier swore that 
he would sacrifice ''even his life" in their defence, and 
the force under his command was certainly strong 
enough to overawe any number of fanatical sans- 
culottes. On the 6th they reached Etampes, half-way 
between Orleans and Paris, and halted there till the 
following day, the prisoners taking advantage of the 
delay to write letters to their friends, which they 
handed to Fournier for transmission, and which that 
worthy subsequently sent to the Convention. 

The terrible scenes which were taking place in Paris 
had thrown the whole of the surrounding country into 
a ferment of excitement, and as the cortege neared 
Versailles, the cries of ''A has les seigneurs! a has les 
seigneurs!" grew more frequent and more threatening, 

" Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 177. 



MADAME DU BARRY 335 

Brissac being in particular the object of hostile dem- 
onstrations. 

The general council of the Commune of Versailles, 
fearing that an attack would be made upon the pris- 
oners, had sent orders that they should not be con- 
ducted through the more populous part of the town, 
and should be confined for the night in the cages of 
the Menagerie, "which would have the advantage of 
satisfying the popular resentment and lessening the 
sentiment of hatred, by giving rise to feelings of con- 
tempt.""^* This precaution, however, was quite useless ; 
the rabble of Versailles was determined to follow in 
the footsteps of the murderers of the Faubourg Saint- 
Antoine, and was not to be baulked of its prey. 

On Sunday, the 9th, about one o'clock in the after- 
noon, the cortege entered the town by the Petit-Mon- 
treuil Gate, passed along the Rue de la Surintendance 
(now the Rue de la Bibliotheque) and the Place 
d'Armes, and began to descend the Rue de FOrangerie. 
Up to that moment, the people who lined the way had 
contented themselves with shouting ''Vive la Nation!'^ 
and hooting the prisoners ; but opposite the Ministry of 
War the procession was stopped by a raging mob 
armed with spikes, sabres, and other weapons. The 
Mayor of Versailles endeavoured to pacify them, but 
to no purpose, although the leaders announced that if 
Brissac and Lessart, the former Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, were given up, the others would be spared. 
Meanwhile, the Orangery Gate, for which the tumbrils 
were making, had been shut, and the escape of the 
prisoners cut off. 

As to remain stationary was to court certain disas- 
ter, orders were given to turn back and ascend the 
street. The mob allowed the procession to get as far 
as the corner of the Rue Satory, and then, sweeping 
^ Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 175. 



336 MADAME DU BARRY 

the escort, which made not the slightest attempt at 
resistance," aside, cut the traces of the horses, and fell 
savagely upon the hapless prisoners." 

Snatching a knife from one of his assailants, Brissac 
defended himself bravely, but he was soon overpow- 
ered by numbers, dragged from his tumbril, and des- 
patched. His body was horribly mutilated, and his 
head, having been cut off, was fixed upon a pike, with 
a label bearing his name on the forehead, and carried 
through the streets in triumph. Later in the day, it 
was taken to Louveciennes and thrown into the gar- 
den, or, according to one account, into the salon of 
Madame du Barry." 

The grief and horror which the terrible death of 
her lover occasioned Madame du Barry may be judged 
from the following letter which the countess wrote, a 
few days after the tragic event, to Madame de Morte- 
mart: 

Madame du Barry to the Duchesse de Morte- 

MART. 

"No one has felt more than myself, Madame, the 
extent of the loss which you have just sustained, and 
I trust that you will not be under a misapprehension 
as to the motive which has prevented me from paying 
you the sad compliment of mingling my tears with 
yours before this. The fear of augmenting your justi- 

*'Fournier afterwards declared that he was himself attacked 
and dragged from his horse, and would have been killed, had 
it not been for the intervention of his men. But there can be 
no possible doubt that he was in collusion with the assassins. 

" Statements of Antoine and Pi'erre Baudin made before a 
notary in Paris, September 12, 1792, cited by Vatel. 

^"We are assured that the head of M. de Brissac was taken 
to Louveciennes and left in the salon of Madam'e du Barry.*'— 
Courrier frangais, September 15, 1792. 



MADAME DU BARRY 337 

fiable grief prevents me from speaking to you of it. 
Mine is complete; a life which ought to have been so 
great, so glorious! What an end! Grand Dieu! 

*'The last wish of your unhappy father, Madame, 
was that I should love you as a sister. This wish is too 
much in conformity with my heart for me not to ful- 
fil it. Accept the assurance of it, and never doubt the 
affection which attaches me to you for the rest of my 
life.'' 

To which the duchess replied : 

The Duchesse de Mortemart to Madame du 

Barry. 

'^September 30. 

"I received your letter this morning. Accept my 
thanks for the good you have done me. You have 
lessened my anguish and brought tears to my eyes. 
Many times I have been ready to write to you and 
speak of my grief; my heart is rent, broken. Ever 
since the fatal day on which my father left Paris I 
have suffered, and I still suffer more than I can ex- 
press. But I judged it wiser to wait until I could 
contain some of my feelings. I must open my heart 
to you, who alone are able to realise my grief. 

"I am eager to fulfil the last wish of him whose 
memory I cherish, and whom I shall mourn for ever; 
I will indeed love you as a sister, and my attachment 
to you will end only with my life. The least of my 
father's wishes is a command sacred to me. If I could 
only obey every one of the desires he had, or must have 
had, in his last moments, I would spare nothing to do so. 

"Pardon my scribble. My head aches so that I 

cannot see. Deign to accept, Madame, the expression 

of my everlasting affection.'"^ 

^° Tribunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, 
Archives nationales. E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 
2Z0. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

EARLY in the following month Madame du 
I Barry prepared for a fourth journey to Eng- 
land. On February 6, 1792, the French courts 
had duly condemned the authors of the robbery at 
Louveciennes, and declared the jewels found in their 
possession to be the property of the mistress of the 
chateau ; but since then a fresh difficulty had arisen. 

The unfortunate handbill in which Rouen had 
advertised the loss of the jewels had been framed in 
very ambiguous terms. It had ofifered two thousand 
louis reward, "and a fair and proportionate reward 
for the objects which might be recovered." Madame 
du Barry maintained that the payment of the two 
thousand louis ought to be accepted in full satisfaction 
of all claims against her, and such, without doubt, had 
been Rouen's intention when he drew up the bill. But 
Simon, the London jeweller whose information had 
led to the apprehension of the thieves, protested that 
he was entitled not only to the above-mentioned sum, 
but to a commission on the value of the property recov- 
ered, and brought an action to enforce his claim, which 
necessitated the lady's return to England. 

Aware that she was now an object of suspicion and 
dislike to the more violent partisans of the Revolution, 
JVIadame du Barry, ere leaving France, took every pos- 
sible precaution to guard against the risk of being 
denounced as an emigree during her absence. She 
applied to Lebrun, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for 
a passport; and when he advised her to procure one 
from the municipality of Louveciennes, was careful to 

338 



MADAME DU BARRY 339 

have it vise both by the directoire of Versailles and the 
administration of her department (Seine-et-Oise). 
Not content with this, she gave a formal undertaking 
to the municipal authorities that she would return to 
France as soon as her lawsuit should be concluded, and 
wrote to Thuriot, the President of the Convention, to 
the same effect : 

Madame du Barry to the President of the 
Convention. 

"Monsieur le President^ — A robbery which de- 
prived me, twenty-one months since, of the most valu- 
able portion of my property and the only security that 
my creditors possess, necessitated a lawsuit in England, 
on account of which I have already been obliged to 
make two^ very expensive journeys. I am advised 
that the suit will be definitely decided this month, and 
that it is absolutely necessary for me to go to London, 
on pain of being condemned in default and losing the 
considerable expenses to which I have already been 
put. I have the honour to assure you. Monsieur le 
President, that I have not the least intention of desert- 
ing my country, where I am leaving all the remainder 
of my property, but that, on the contrary, I am enter- 
ing into a most solemn engagement to return to my 
residence of Louveciennes as soon as my suit is de- 
cided. I am placing an undertaking to that effect in 
the hands of my municipality, from which I am well 
assured that I have nothing but favourable testimony 
to expect. 

"I am, with respect. . ."* 

Thus protected at all points, as she fondly imagined, 

* She had, of course, made three journeys. 

^Dossier de Madame du Barry, Archives nationales. E. and J. 
de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 248. 



340 MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame du Barry set out for England on October 14, 
accompanied by a M. Labondie, a nephew of the Chev- 
alier d'Escourre. Her case, however, so far from 
being concluded in a few weeks, dragged on for more 
than four months, and it was not until February 2J 
that the court gave a verdict in Simon's favour for 
one thousand louis, and decided that the jewels were 
to be handed over to the countess on her paying that 
sum and the costs of the proceedings. What these 
amounted to we are not told, but they would appear 
to have been very considerable, as, when Madame du 
Barry was arrested in the following September, the 
jewels were still lying in Ransom's Bank, waiting for 
their owner to redeem them. 

Owing, no doubt, to her grief at the tragic death of 
poor Brissac, Madame du Barry seems to have gone 
but little into English society during this visit, and we 
find no mention of her movements in Walpole's letters. 
She dined, however, on one occasion at the house of 
Thellusson, the banker, and there met the young Due 
de Choiseul, her old enemy's nephew and successor. 
"I was placed next to her at table," says the duke, "and 
during dinner, at which she endeavoured to be very 
amiable, she spoke to me much about my uncle, de- 
plored the counsels which she had followed, and gave 
me to understand that she had had for him a coquet- 
terie reele, but that she had found him cold and re- 
served."' 

The news of the execution of Louis XVI. on Janu- 
ary 21, 1793, created a profound impression in Eng- 
land. Court mourning was ordered and worn by per- 
sons of all ranks in the metropolis, and Requiem 
Masses were said in all the Catholic churches. Ma- 
dame du Barry not only wore mourning, but attended 
the service in the chapel of the Spanish Embassy; in- 
^ Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. p. 48. 



MADAME DU BARRY 341 

discretions which, together with several visits which 
she paid to the houses of the Comte de Narbonne, 
Calonne, Talleyrand, and other emigres, were duly 
noted by the spies of the Republic with whom London 
swarmed, and were not forgotten when the poor 
woman appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal. 
The countess left for France on March i,* but as 
war had broken out between England and France a 
month previously, she was compelled to remain some 
time at Calais before she could procure a passport." 
At length, on the 1 7th, she was permitted to set out for 
Louveciennes, where a most unpleasant surprise 
awaited her. 

Soon after Madame du Barry quitted Louveciennes 
on her last journey to England, a person named 

^Very much against the advice of her friends, who implored 
her to remain. According to Madame Guenard, shortly before 
her departure Madame du Barry had an interview with Pitt, who 
presented her with a medal bearing his portrait, and warned 
her that if she returned to France she would meet the fate of 
Regulus. This story is probably apocryphal; but Madame du 
Barry does seem to have been acquainted with Pitt, and also 
possessed a m'edal of the kind described ; for " living habitually 
with Pitt and wearing a medal bearing the effigy of the monster " 
was one of the charges against her at her trial. 
^Here is the passport: 

Republique Frangaise 

Au nom de la loi 

Depart'ement du Pas-de-Calais, district et municipalite de Calais 

No. 4829 
Laissez passer la citoyenne Devaubergnier Dubarri, Frangaise, 
domicile a Louveciennes, municipalite de Louveciennes, district 
de Versailles, departement de Seine-et-Oise 

Agee de quarante ans ( !) 

Taille de cinq pieds un pouce 

Cheveux blond (sic) 

Sourcils chatain 

Yeux bleux (sic) 

Nez bien fait 

Bouche moyenne 

M'enton rond 

Visage ovale et plein 
Et pretez-lui aide et assistance, &c 



342 MADAME DU BARRY 

George Grieve, or Greive, as he wrote his name in later 
years, came to the village and took up his quarters at 
the inn. This Grieve was an Englishman, a member 
of a respectable family at Alnwick, in Northumber- 
land. His father, Richard Grieve, was an attorney, 
and his brother, Richardson David Grieve, had been 
high-sheriff of Northumberland in 1788. The Grieves, 
however, had always been ardent politicians, and of a 
particularly turbulent kind. Both the grandfather, 
Ralph Grieve, and Richard Grieve had been expelled 
from the Common Council at Alnwick for riotous con- 
duct during elections, and George seems to have in- 
herited the family weakness in a very marked degree. 
In 1774, he took an active part in defeating the Duke 
of Northumberland's attempt to nominate both mem- 
bers for the county, and, four years later, headed a 
mob which levelled the fences of a part of the moor 
wrongly presented by the corporation to the duke's 
agent. About 1780, having got into pecuniary dif- 
ficulties. Grieve left England and went to America, 
where he became acquainted with Washington and 
other founders of the Republic, and appears to have 
supported himself by his pen. From America he pro- 
ceeded to Holland, it is said, on some political mission, 
and about 1783 took up his abode in Paris. ^ 

Until the arrival of Grieve in their midst, the inhabi- 
tants of Louveciennes had been, comparatively speak- 
ing, unaffected by the disturbances which were going 
on around them ; but Grieve, who had acquired a thor- 
ough mastery of the French language, and seems to 

Delivre en la maison commune de Calais, le 17 mars 1793 
L'An II. de la Republique et ont signes (sic) Reisenthal, officier 
municipal ; Tellier ; Roullier secretaire commis greffier, qui a 
signe pour le present et Devaubergnier Dubarri. — ^Vatel's Histoire 
de Madame du Barry, iii. 189. 

^ Mr. J. G. Alger's " Englishmen in the French Revolution,'* 
p. 187, et seq. 



MADAME DU BARRY 343 

have been a fluent and persuasive speaker, soon suc- 
ceeded in working a complete transformation in that 
peaceful spot; and by the time Madame du Barry re- 
turned it would have been difficult to find a nest of 
more rabid Jacobins in all France. 

But it was against the mistress of the chateau her- 
self that the agitator's machinations were mainly di- 
rected, though what motive he could have had for the 
implacable hatred he evinced towards her has never 
been . satisfactorily explained, and must, we fear, 
always remain a matter of conjecture. Some writers 
think that he was prompted b}/ Marat, with whom he 
was on intimate terms, and who, as we have seen, had 
already attacked Madame du Barry in his journal; 
others, that he intended to terrify her intO' purchasing 
his silence; while others, again, incline to the belief 
that he was enamoured of the lady and persecuted her 
either out of revenge for her having rejected his ad- 
dresses or in the hope of compelling her to accept 
them. The most probable solution of the mystery, 
however, is that he was merely a fanatic possessed with 
a mania for delation""— he subsequently boasted of hav- 
ing brought no less than seventeen persons to the guil- 
lotine — and imagined that the ruin of so prominent a 
representative of the old regime as the former mistress 
of Louis XV. would add lustre to his sanguinary 
reputation. 

However that may be. Grieve appears to have left 
no stone unturned to compass the destruction of the 
unhappy lady. By bribes or threats, he won over two 
of her servants, Salanave and the Hindoo, Zamor; 
wormed all their mistress's secrets out of them ; organ- 
ised a club, which had the impudence to meet in her 
salon and pass resolutions against her; contrived tO' 

■^ He denounced one unfortunate person merely because he had 
obeerved him " look furious " when visiting Marat. 



344 MADAME DU BARRY 

persuade the authorities at Versailles that the 
countess's prolonged absence meant that she had be- 
come an emigree; and, finally, on February i6, ob- 
tained an order for seals to be placed on her property. 
When Madame du Barry returned and found what 
had been done, she was highly indignant and addressed 
a vigorous remonstrance to the administrators of her 
district : 

Madame du Barry to the Directory of the 
District of Versailles. 

"Citizen Administrators, — The Citoyenne de 
Vaubernier du Barry is very astonished that after all 
the reasons for her being compelled to visit England 
with which she has furnished you, you have treated her 
as an emigree. Before her departure, she communi- 
cated to you the declaration that she had made to her 
municipality; you have registered it at your offices, 
and you are aware that this is the fourth journey that 
she has been obliged to undertake, always for the 
same object. She hopes that you will be willing to re- 
move the seals which have been imposed at her house, 
against all justice, since the law has never prohibited 
those persons whom private and urgent affairs call to 
foreign countries leaving the realm. All France is 
aware of the robbery which took place on the night 
of January lo-i i ; that the robbers were apprehended 
in London, and that a trial followed, in which the final 
decision was not arrived at until February 28 last, as 
the enclosed certificate bears witness.* 
" Louveciennes, March 2y, 1793." 

This remonstrance had the desired effect, and the 
seals were promptly removed ; but Grieve was not dis- 
^ Cited by the Goncourts, La Du Barry, p. 251. 



MADAME DU BARRY 345 

couraged, and, after spending some three months in 
maturing his plans, in company with Salanave'' and a 
spy named Blache, who had had Madame du Barry 
under observation during her stay in England, where 
he had been masquerading as a teacher of French, 
returned to the attack. Profiting by the terrible de- 
cree of June 2, 1793, which directed the authorities 
throughout the Republic to seize and place under arrest 
all persons ''notoirement suspectes d' aristocratic ct 
d'incivismc" he drew up an address to the authorities 
of the Department of Seine-et-Oise, signed by thirty- 
six of the Inhabitants of Louveciennes, complaining 
of the presence in their midst of many aristocrats and 
suspected persons of both sexes, and demanding the 
publication of the decree of June 2. This request hav- 
ing been granted, Grieve at once made out a list of 
^'suspects," placed the name of Madame du Barry at 
the head of it, and proceeded to the chateau to arrest 
her. However, the countess had been advised of his 
proceedings, and had sent her valct-dc-chamhrc , 
Morin, and Labondie, to plead her cause with the 
members of the superior administrations; and just as 
Grieve and the officials of the municipality reached 
the house, Boileau, member for the district, arrived 
on the scene, reprimanded them for making Improper 
use of a law which was only intended to be used with 
great caution, and suspended the arrest. 

Nothing daunted, Grieve lost no time In drawing up 
another address, and, on July 3, presented himself at 
the bar of the Convention, accompanied by some of 
"the brave sans-culottcs of Louveciennes"; and there 
proceeded to read his petition, which contained a ve- 
hement denunciation of Madame du Barry, "who had 
made her chateau the centre of liberticide projects, 

® Salanave had been detected by Madame du Barry ,_ soon after 
her return, stealing her porcelain, and had been dismissed. 



34^ MADAME DU BARRY 

commenced by Brissac and continued by the aristocrats 
of every shade with whom she was in constant cor- 
respondence; who insulted by her luxury the suffer- 
ings of the unfortunate people whose husbands, 
fathers, brothers, and children were shedding their 
blood for the cause of equality in our armies, and 
whose arrest was indispensable in order to destroy the 
vestiges of a false grandeur, which dazzled the eyes 
of the good and simple inhabitants of the surrounding 
country, and put into practice the misunderstood prin- 
ciples of equality/"'* 

To this the President of the Convention replied: 
''The National Convention applauds the new proofs 
which the commune of Louveciennes has just given of 
its patriotism, recognised from the commencement of 
the Revolution, and which it manifests at the present 
moment by putting into execution the law of June 2 
against a woman too long celebrated for the misfor- 
tune of France. The facts that you have just alleged 
against her are very grave; be assured that, if they are 
proved, her head shall fall on the scaffold.'^ 

He then gave orders that Madame du Barry was to 
be placed under arrest in her own house, guarded by a 
gendarme, to be kept there at the lady's expense, and 
sent the petition to the Committee of General Security," 
which body ordered the Department of Seine-et-Oise 
to hold an inquiry into the alleged "incivism" of the 
Citoyenne du Barry. 

^^ L'EgalitS controuvee, ou Petite Histoire de la Protection, 
contenant les pieces relatives a la arrestation de la du Barry. 
(Paris: 1793.) ^^ Ibid. 

^^ The Committee of General Security must not be confounded 
with the Committee of Public Safety. On special occasions they 
consulted together, but the former always occupied a subordinate 
position. The Committee of General Security superintended the 
measures taken for the detection of political crime. Originally 
the Girondists possessed a majority in it, but it was now com- 
posed of twelve Montagnards. 



MADAME DU BARRY 347 

The inquiry was held a few days later, and the 
signatories of Grieve's petition were called upon to 
make good their allegations. This they entirely failed 
to do; some, whom Grieve had probably intimidated 
into signing the address, declared that they had done 
so under a misapprehension as to its contents, while 
the rest could only adduce rambling statements and 
vague rumours, which even a revolutionary court was 
reluctant to admit as evidence. On the other hand, a 
number of the inhabitants of Louveciennes who looked 
with disapproval on Grieve's proceedings, and had de- 
clined to join the club which he had organised, drew 
up a counter-petition, in which they spoke in high 
terms of the Citoyenne du Barry, declaring that she 
was the benefactress of the village; that they had seen 
her in all weathers taking food and money to the sick 
and poor; that she readily paid all taxes that were 
levied, and had proven her patriotism by lending a 
room in her house for a meeting of the local commit- 
tee. The address concluded with a complaint of the 
conduct of certain persons (Grieve and his friends) 
who had recently established themselves in their midst 
and set themselves to disturb the harmony and good- 
feeling which had hitherto existed. 

This petition they sent to the Committee of General 
Security, who, after having deliberated upon it, de- 
cided that there was no evidence to convict the Cito- 
yenne du Barry, and directed the authorities of Seine- 
et-Oise to set her at liberty. 

Thus the countess was saved a second time, and a 
severe rebuff administered to the malignant Grieve; 
but the latter was not the man to allow his victim to 
escape him. On July 31 he published and circulated a 
violent pamphlet, under the title of "Sham Equality 
{UEgalite controuz^ee) ; or Short Account of the Pro- 
tection {i.e., that given by Boileau and the authorities 



348 MADAME DU BAKRY 

of Seine-et-Oise to the ex-f avourite) , containing the 
documents relating to the arrest of the Du Barry, 
former mistress of Louis XV., to serve as an example 
to those over-zealous patriots who wish to save the 
Republic and those moderates who understand marvel- 
lously well how to ruin it." The author signed him- 
self ''Grieve, defenseur oMcieux of the brave sans- 
culottes of Louveciennes., friend of Franklin and Ma- 
rat, factious {factieux) and anarchist of the first water, 
and disorganiser of despotism for twenty years in both 
hemispheres," denounced the interference of depart- 
ments and committees with the course of justice, and 
called loudly for the death of ''the courtesan of Louve- 
ciennes, the Bacchante crowned with ivy and roses,""* 

This pamphlet was, in due course, brought to the 
notice of Madame du Barry, who was astonished to 
find that it contained a number of intimate details re- 
garding her private life, which could only have been 
furnished the writer by a member of her household. 
Her suspicions fell upon Zamor, who had been the only 
one of her servants who had not been placed under 
arrest after Grieve's petition to the Convention, and 
she promptly ordered the treacherous and ungrateful 
Hindoo to leave the house. She doubtless imagined 
that she had got rid of him for good and all ; but she 
was mistaken; for Zamor was to reappear to give 
evidence against his benefactress before the Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal. 

As the days went by the attitude of Grieve and his 
confederates towards the mistress of the chateau be- 
came more and more menacing, and at length Madame 
du Barry was forced to appeal for protection to the 
administration of the department. 

The administrators of Seine-et-Oise were favour- 

^ A copy of this pamphlet, now very rare, is in the possession 
of the British Museum. 



MADAME DU BARRY 349 

ably disposed towards the ex- favourite ; indeed, one 
of their number, named Lavallery, is commonly be- 
lieved to have been in love with her ; and, in answer to 
her appeal, Lavallery came to Louveciennes and urged 
her to remove to Versailles and place herself under the 
protection of himself and his colleagues. Madame du 
Barry, however, explained to him that all her jewellery 
which the burglars had overlooked, her plate, and a 
very large sum in cash were concealed in various parts 
of the house and grounds; that the traitors Salanave 
and Zamor were acquainted with her arrangements, 
and that her departure would probably be the signal 
for a raid, which might deprive her of a great part of 
her fortune. 

The visit of Lavallery to Louveciennes did not pass 
unnoticed by the watchful Grieve, who, the very next 
day, called a meeting of his club and decided to send a 
deputation to Versailles, to denounce Madame dti 
Barry to the revolutionary committee of the commune 
of the town, and to draw up, in concert with that body, 
a petition to the Committee of General Security, de- 
manding the arrest of her protector and two of his 
colleagues."* 

Solicitude for the safety of her hidden treasures was 
not the only reason which made Madame du Barry 
reluctant to quit Louveciennes at that moment; from 
the following letter, which was among the papers 
seized at her house, at the time of her arrest, it would 
appear that she had given, or was about to give, a 
third successor to Louis XV. : 

^'Saturday, September 7, 1793. 

"I send you, my dear and affectionate friend, the 
picture that you wished for, sad and funereal present,"^ 

" E. and J, de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 261. 
^''Without doubt a portrait of Brissac. 



350 MADAME DU BARRY 

but I feel as much as you yourself that you ought to 
desire it. In such a situation as ours, with so many 
subjects of pain and grief, it is food for our melan- 
choly that we seek and which becomes us beyond 
everything. 

"I have sent to fetch the three portraits of you which 
were at his house; they are here. I have kept one of 
the small ones ; it is the original of that in which you 
are wearing a chemise or white peignoir and a hat with 
a plume."' The second is a copy of that in which the 
head is finished, but where the attire is only traced out ;" 
neither of them are framed. The large one, by 
Madame Lebrun, is delicious and a ravishing likeness : 
it is a speaking portrait and infinitely pleasing ; but in- 
deed I should have thought myself too indiscreet in 
selecting it, and the one I am keeping is so pleasing, 
so excellent a likeness, and so piquant, that I am ex- 
tremely content with it and transported with happiness 
at possessing it. The one begun by Letellier is only 
sketched out, and the head is scarcely anything but a 
rough draft, which may become a good likeness. I 
have had it sent back to the painter. 

"With regard to your large portrait and the one 
which I am keeping, tell me, dear friend, if you wish 
me to send them to you or if I ought to have them 
taken back to where they came from; in short, what 
destination you intend for them. I desire nothing 
more than to have one which I may carry with me and 
which may never leave me. Come then, dear love, to 
pass sweet days here; come and dine with me, with 
whomever you may choose; come and procure me a 
few moments of happiness ; I have none save with you ; 
let me have an answer to all my questions; come to 
see a mortal who loves you beyond all and above all 

^° See p. 320 note supra. 
"Ibid. 



MADAME DU BARRY 351 

until the last moment of his life. I kiss a thousand 
times the portrait of the most charming woman in the 
world, and whose heart, so good and so noble, merits 
an eternal devotion." 

This letter, now in the National Archives, is un- 
signed, and there is considerable doubt as to the iden- 
tity of its writer. M. Vatel is of opinion that it was 
penned by the Due de Rohan-Chabot, a young man 
some twenty years Madame du Barry's junior, to 
whom the ex-favourite had, a few months previously, 
advanced a large sum of money, an act which, as we 
shall presently see, both she and her unfortunate bank- 
ers, the Vandenyvers, who had negotiated the trans- 
action, were to have good cause to rue. But the noble- 
man in question was certainly not in a position to in- 
vite the lady to dine with him just then, or even to 
spend "a. few moments of happiness" with her, as he 
appears to have taken up arms against the Republic, 
and had he ventured within a dozen leagues of Paris, 
would most certainly have paid for his rashness with 
his head. We are, therefore, inclined to think that the 
Goncourts, who attribute the letter to another member 
of the Rohan family, the Prince de Rohan-Rochefort, 
may be nearer the mark, as the princess of that name 
was an intimate friend of Madame du Barry. How- 
ever, as they do not give us any reason for the con- 
clusion at which they have arrived, it is probably 
merely a supposition on their part. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

IN THE second week in September 1793, several 
members of the Committee of General Security 
retired, and were replaced by some of the most 
fanatical and sanguinary members of the "Mountain" : 
Vadier, **that odious mixture of pride, barbarity, and 
cowardice," as Louis Blanc designates him; Amar, 
who had voted for the execution of Louis XVL '^sans 
appel ni sursis" ; and Panis, Santerre's brother-in-law. 
The implacable Grieve was not slow to perceive his 
opportunity, and hardly had the new members taken 
their seats when he presented himself before them 
with a new petition against Madame du Barry, signed 
by the revolutionary committee of the commune of 
Versailles. 

On this occasion, his efforts were crowned with suc- 
cess, and, on September 21, the Committee of General 
Security issued the following decree: 

"WARRANT FOR ARREST. 

"Committee of General Security, 

"Sitting September 21, 1793. 

"The Committee decrees that the woman named 
Dubarry, residing at Louveciennes, shall be arrested 
and conducted to the prison of Sainte-Pelagie, to be 
there detained, as a measure of general security, as a 
person suspected of incivism and aristocracy. The 
seals shall be placed on her effects, and perquisition 
made of her papers. Those which appear suspicious 
shall be brought to the Committee of General Security. 
The Committee delegates the Citizen Grieve to execute 

352 



MADAME DU BARRY 353 

the present decree, and authorises him to requisition 
such civil officers of justice as he may find ; armed force 
if need be. Moreover, the Citizen Grieve will cause 
to be arrested and conducted to Paris, to be confined 
as a measure of general security in the prison of La 
Force, all persons found at the house of the said Du- 
barry at Louveciennes at the moment of the execution 
of the present decree. 

*'Signed : Boucher-Saint-Sauveur, 
"Amar, Vadier, Panis"' 

The following day, accompanied by the mayor — 
who, poor man! must have been shaking in his shoes, 
as he was one of those who had signed the pro-Du 
Barry petition of the previous summer — ^the juge de 
paix of Marly, several officers of the municipality, and 
two gendarmes. Grieve proceeded to Louveciennes, ex- 
hibited his warrant to the ill-fated mistress of the 
chateau, directed the juge de paix to place the seals on 
the doors of the house, ordered the lady to enter a car- 
riage in company with the gendarmes, and set out for 
Paris. 

As they were passing the hydraulic machine at Marly, 
they perceived a cabriolet approaching, in which sat 
the Chevalier d'Escourre, who was on his way to 
pay Madame du Barry a visit. Although Grieve had 
no authority to apprehend any one save the ex- favour- 
ite and those found on her premises, he was not the 
man to stick at trifles, and immediately ordered the 
gendarmes to arrest the chevalier, whom he subse- 
quently declared to have been "at the du Barry's 
door,* at the moment when her arrest took place. He 

* Cited in Vaters Histoire de Madame du Barry, lii. 451. 

* " D'Estcourt had already arrived in a cabriolet, with a servant, 
at the Dubarry's door, the day of her arrest ; but having learned 
what was passing in the house, fled at full speed. Our brave 
sans-culottes pursued him, and, with difficulty, caught him at the 



354 MADAME DU BARRY 

then removed the lady tO' the cabriolet, took the reins 
himself, and drove her the rest of the way to the 
city. 

it would indeed be interesting to know what passed 
between the Englishman and the woman whose fate he 
held in his hands during that drive. Did he offer her 
life? as several writers seem to suppose. If he did, the 
price was one which she declined to pay, for Grieve 
never turned aside for a moment from his fell purpose 
until the guillotine had claimed its victim. 

At Sainte-Pelagie, Madame du Barry found herself 
in the company of many of her own sex : the celebrated 
Madame Roland, who had been shut up there since 
September 2 ; the wives of two other Girondin leaders, 
Mesdames Brissot and Petion; Mesdames de Crequy- 
Montmorency and de Gouy; the Mesdemoiselles de 
Moncrif and several actresses of the Frangais, now the 
Theatre de la Nation, among them Mademoiselle Rau- 
court, to whom, in the days of her favour, the coun- 
tess had presented a magnificent dress. 

Madame du Barry was very far from being disposed 
to follow the example of calm fortitude which the 
Girondin ladies set her, and on October 2 she wrote 
a letter to the Administration of Seine-et-Oise, com- 
plaining of the treatment she had received at the hands 
of the Committee of General Security, who, after de- 
claring her innocent of the charges brought against 
her, had, only a few weeks later, decreed her arrest. 
She pointed out that, had she desired, she could easily 
have removed the most valuable part of her property 
to England during her several journeys thither, and 
that the fact that she had not done so was a convinc- 

foot of the mountain of Bougival."— Note in Grieve's handwrit- 
ing on the back of d'Escourre's acte d'accusation, cited by the 
Goncourts. 



MADAME DU BARRY 355 

ing proof of her attachment to her country; and she 
begged the Administration to prevent Grieve from 
plundering her house. 

The letter was without effect, for her enemy, antici- 
pating her appeal to the departmental authorities, had, 
a few days before obtaining the warrant for the ex- 
favourite's arrest, denounced Lavallery and his two 
brother-administrators to the committee of General 
Security, who had ordered their apprehension ; and, on 
the very day on which Madame du Barry's letter was 
written, the body of her protector was found floating 
in the Seine above Paris. Some writers have asserted 
that he was so madly enamoured of Madame du Barry 
that he drowned himself on learning of her arrest ; but 
it would appear more probable that his death was due 
to a desire to escape the ignominy of a public execu- 
tion, as the warrant for his own arrest had been issued 
before any steps had been taken against the lady. 
However, there can be little doubt that his admiration 
for the mistress of Louveciennes cost him his life. 

Finding that she had nothing to hope for from the 
Department, Madame du Barry appealed directly to the 
Committee of General Security, to whom her friends 
at Louveciennes now addressed a second petition, pray- 
ing for the release of their benefactress. This seems 
to have alarmed Grieve, who thereupon went to 
Heron, a member of the Committee, who had a long- 
standing feud with the Vandenyvers, Madame du Bar- 
ry's bankers, and urged him to denounce them to his 
colleagues as accomplices of the ex-favourite in her 
dealings with aristocrats and emigres, by which move, 
he perceived, the case against the poor woman would 
be greatly strengthened. Heron needed very little per- 
suasion to induce him to undertake so congenial a task ; 
and the unfortunate bankers were arrested and re- 
moved to Sainte- Pelagic. 
Memoirs — 12 Vol. 2 



3S6 MADAME DU BARRY 

While Heron was drawing up his report against the 
Vandenyvers, Grieve had received permission to make 
investigations at Louveciennes, where he busied him- 
self in going through all the letters and papers he 
could find in the chateau and affixing to them annota- 
tions for the guidance of the prosecution. Although 
the majority of these letters are of the most trivial 
nature, and many anterior to the Revolution, there is 
hardly one from which the malice of the scoundrel 
does not succeed in extracting something to compro- 
mise his victim. 

Thus, on a note in which mention is made of the 
Abbe Billiardi, he writes: ''This Abbe Billiardi was 
one of her most frequent visitors since the Revolution, 
as was also the Abbe de Fontenille, ex-vicar of A gen, 
guillotined the other day in Paris, Billiardi is dead. 
These abbes were inseparable friends, and Billiardi 
was also an anti^-r evolutionist. Behold the friends of 
the DubarryT On a letter from Madame Vigee Le- 
brun, dated from Naples, in which she begs to be re- 
membered to Brissac, Madame de Souza, the Portu- 
guese Ambassadress, and the Marquise de Brunoi: 
''Letter of the woman Lebrun, painter and mistress of 
Calonme.^' 

On a letter from Thellusson, the banker: "One of 
the greatest London bankers, nephew of Thellusson, 
former partner of Necker and great enemy of the 
Revolution." 

On a letter from Forth, a London dectective whom 
Madame du Barry had employed for the recovery of 
her jewels : "Proof of her connection with Forth, the 
famous English spy, who has not ceased to intrigue 
against France since 1777, and particularly since the 
time of Franklin. It is he and Bethune Charost who 
have been the most active emissaries of the Courts of 
London, Berlin, and the Hague, and it is this Forth 



MADAME DU BARRY 337 

who, one may presume, has plotted with her at Louve- 
defines the pretended robbery of her diamonds," 

On a letter from Lord Hawkesbury,'* who presents 
his compHments to Madame du Barry and will be 
charmed to render her any service in his power in re- 
gard to her lawsuit: ^'Letter which proves her in- 
trigues with the courtiers of George II L Lord 
Hawkesbury is the privy councillor of the tyrant, who 
governs Pitt himself and who, for twenty years, has 
really held the reins of government, although now and 
again apparently in disgrace; his son is to-day the 
great political courier between London and the allied 
Powers in the Netherlands/* 

**He forces the letters to say what they do not 
say, he connects certain passages with events with 
which they have no connection. He imagines, he 
supposes, he lies, he tortures, in short, phrases and 
words to extract from them a culpability neces- 
sary for the furtherance of his schemes and his 
hatred.'' 

On a letter from the Due de Rohan-Chabot refer- 
ring to the loan of 200,000 livres which Madame du 
Barry had made him, he suggests that the money was 
to be used to subsidise the insurgents in La Vendee, 
where the duke's estates were, A memorandum of 
the expenses incurred by the countess during her stay 
in London in November 1792 is endorsed with an in- 
quiry if the money were not given to emigres. And a 
letter from an old lady to Madame du Barry, dated La 
Meilleraie, April 9, 1793, bears the annotation: 
"Remark the time when this letter was written; it is 
that of the treason of Dumouries." 

He details the "liberticide" books, journals, pam- 

' Charles Jenkinson, afterwards first Earl o£ Liverpool. He 
had been created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786. 
* Robert Banks Jenkinson, afterwards second Earl of Liverpool. 



358 MADAME DU BARRY 

phlets, engravings, and so forth, which he has found, 
among which he cites the Histoire des caricatures de la 
revolte des Frangais of Boyer de Nismes; twelve copies 
of Peltier's Dernier Tableau de Paris; a translation of 
Burke's work on Marie Antoinette; Epitaphe du 
Varicourt, Uie a la parte de la Reine, which he declares 
to have been written by the Abbe Dellile, "poet-in-or- 
dinary of the Dubarry," and a portrait of the Comte 
d'Artois/ Assisted by Salanave and Zamor, he also 
collected all the jewellery, cash, and securities he could 
discover, and made an exact inventory of them; after 
which he drew up a list of twenty-seven witnesses, with 
himself at their head, and forwarded this, together 
with a long memorandum of the various facts to which 
they were prepared to depose, to Fouquier-Tinville, the 
Public Prosecutor. 

On October 30 the Committee of General Security 
deputed two of their number, Voulland and Jagot, to 
proceed to Saint e-Pelagie and interrogate the Citoy- 
enne du Barry. This interrogatory, a verbatim ac- 
count of which will be found in M. Vatel's interesting 
work, was a very lengthy one, but we shall confine our- 
selves to the more important points of the examina- 
tion. 

Q. From whom did you receive while in London the 
money you required for your expenses and the con- 
duct of your lawsuit? 

A. From the Citizen Vandenyver, banker of Paris, 
Rue Vivienne, who gave me a letter of credit on Thel- 
lusson; it was during my last journey that I made use 
of that. 

Q. Is your lawsuit concluded? 

^ Trihunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de la noinmee Jeanne 
Vaubernier du Barry . . . et des Vendenyver, prevenus d'inteU 
ligences et correspondances contre-revolutionnaires aves les emi- 
gres: Archives nationales. E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, 
pp. 273-27S. 



MADAME DU BARRY 359 

A. My lawsuit was concluded on February 27, the 
last day of term. 

Q, Was not the time you were to spend in London 
specified in your passport? 

A. No date was specified, and could not reasonably 
be, as a lawsuit had to be concluded. 

Q. During the time you were in London, decrees 
were issued by the National Convention ordering all 
French who had left the Republic within a certain 
time to return, under pain of being regarded as 
emigres and treated as such. Were you aware of 
this? 

A. I was aware of these decrees, but did not con- 
sider that they concerned me, as I had left for a definite 
reason and was provided with a passport. 

Q. During your stay in London, war was declared 
between the French Republic and the King of Great 
Britain. Why, under these circumstances, did you not 
quit the enemy's territory? 

A. War was declared such a short time before my 
departure,* and my case was on the point of being de- 
cided. I therefore prolonged my stay, in order to 
avoid a fresh journey. 

She was then questioned about her loan of 200,000 
livres to the Due de Rohan-Chabot, which she admit- 
ted, but stoutly denied that she had advanced a similar 
sum to the Bishop of Rouen, and persisted in denying 
all knowledge of such a transaction, though shown a 
letter from the Vandenyvers referring to a proposed 
loan to that prelate.' 

^Exactly a month. War was declared on February i, 1793, 
and Madame du Barry left England on -March i. 

' This was an important point, as Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, 
Bishop of Rouen, was a bitter opponent of the Revolution. He 
had signed the protest of September 21, 1791, against the in- 
novations in religion made by the National Assembly, incited 
his clergy to resistance, and, after the events of August 10, had 
femigrated. 



360 MADAME DU BARRY 

The letters seized at Louveciennes and annotated by 
Grieve were next produced, and the prisoner taken 
through them, with a twofold purpose: to make her 
incriminate herself, and to ascertain particulars about 
her correspondents which might be used against them 
hereafter. In the latter object the questioners were 
but too successful, as Madame du Barry admitted that 
the writer of a letter which contained an innocent re- 
mark about Marie Antoinette was the Princess Lubo- 
mirska, a member of an old Polish family, who had 
come to Paris the previous year with her little 
daughter; and the unhappy lady was arrested on a 
charge of "conspiring to effect the escape of the widow 
Capet," condemned, and executed. It also transpired 
that the detective Forth — Grieve's "famous English 
spy" — who had been employed by Madame du Barry 
to recover her diamonds, had, before the outbreak of 
war, been in the habit of conveying letters from 
emigres in London to their friends in France, and that 
the lady, in her turn, had been requested by a gentle^ 
man who had since lost his head to take charge of a 
letter for Madame Calonne, which, however, she de- 
clared she had not delivered. 

The commissioners then proceeded to interrogate 
her in regard to her relations with emigres while in 
England. She admitted that she had received visits 
from a few whom she had known previously, "as it 
w^as difficult for her to close her doors to them," and 
had visited them, but denied having given them money, 
except small sums in two instances, and only as loans. 
Shown a memorandum of her expenses during her 
last visit to London and asked to explain, amongst 
others, payments made to Frondeville, ex-President of 
the Parliament of Rouen, and a person named Fortune, 
she answered that the money had been given them "to 
gamble for her," and had been repaid. 



MADAME DU BARRY 361 

The jewel robbery at Louveciennes was the next 
point raised. 

Q. Was the list of the diamonds which you had 
printed correct? Did it not contain a description of 
other stones besides those stolen? 

A. The description was perfectly correct, with the 
exception of a chain of emeralds and diamonds, which 
was stolen, and which was brought to M. de Brissac 
during my third visit to England. M. de Brissac gave 
a hundred louis to the person who brought it to him. 

Q. Did you ever entertain the idea of selling your 
diamonds, and did you not take steps for that purpose 
and send them abroad? If so, when? 

A. In 1789 or 1790. I applied to Vandenyver, who 
sent part of them to Holland ; but the price offered not 
being sufficient, I withdrew the jewels from Vande- 
nyver and gave him a receipt cancelling the one he 
had given me. 

After some further questions she was asked what 
money she had in her house, and replied that she had 
given instructions to her servants to conceal "eleven 
bags, each containing 1200 livres, 1531 louis d'or 
(which she had borrowed from the Due de Brissac to 
pay the reward for her diamonds), 40 double louis, 
and some English half-guineas. She was, however, 
in ignorance where her people had hidden the money. 

The last question put tO' her was in reference to the 
shelter she had given to the Abbe de la Roche-Fonten- 
ille, nephew of the Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames. She 
admitted that she had given the abbe a room at Louve- 
ciennes, "as a return for the kindness which his aunt 
had shown her," but she had not seen him since Sep- 
tember 1792, and did not know what had become of 
him. 

At this the inquisitors must have smiled grimly, for 
the poor Abbe de la Roche-Fontenille had been des- 



362 MADAME DU BARRY 

patched to another world, by way of the Place de la 
Revolution, three days previously. 

Two days later (Brumaire 11), the elder Vande- 
nyver was examined, and questioned very closely as to 
the money he had furnished to Madame du Barry 
while in England, and particularly in regard to the 
supposed loan of 200,000 livres to the Bishop of 
Rouen. He admitted paying the sum in question, on 
his client's instructions, to a person who had called at 
the bank for the money, but declared that he had never 
seen the man before, and could not say "positively" if 
it was intended for the bishop.^ 

On Brumaire 29 (November 19) the Committee of 
Genera-l Security issued the following decree: 

**^9 Brumaire Year II. of the French Republic one and 
indivisible. 

"The Committee of General Security having taken 
cognisance of the various documents found at the 
house of the Du Barry, placed under arrest as a meas- 
ure of general security as a suspected person, by the 
terms of the decree of September 17 last,^ and being 
of opinion that the said documents show that the 
woman Du Barry has been guilty of emigration and of 
having, during the sojourn which she made in London 
from the month of October 1792 to the month of 
March last, furnished to emigres who have sought 
refuge there pecuniary assistance, and carried on with 
them a suspicious correspondence, decrees that the said 
Du Barry shall be transferred to the Revolutionary 
Court, to be there prosecuted and judged by the Pub^ 
lie Prosecutor."^" 

^ Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 221, et seq. 

^ Evidently an error. The warrant for her arrest was issued 
September 21. 

'^^ Dossier du Barry: Archives nationales. E. and J. de Gon- 
court's La Du Barry, p. 280. 



MADAME DU BARRY 363 

Three days later, Madame du Barry was brought 
from Sainte-Pelagie, where she had already spent two 
weary months, to the Palais de Justice, and interro- 
gated by Robespierre's henchman, the brutal Dumas, 
vice-president of the Revolutionary Court, in the pres- 
ence of the Public Prosecutor and the clerk to the 
court. Dumas asked her a great many questions about 
the sums she had squandered during her favour, the 
extent of her influence over Louis XV., the gratifica- 
tions and pensions she had obtained for her friends, 
and so forth. He then declared his belief that the 
jewel robbery and the lawsuit were only pretexts to 
conceal a political secret, and that she had "conspired 
against the Republic."" Madame du Barry contented 
herself with a simple denial^ and was then taken back 
to Sainte-Pelagie, whence she addressed the following 
letter to the Public Prosecutor: 

Madame du Barry to Fouquier-Tinville. 

"Citizen Public Prosecutor, — I hope that thou, 
ill the impartial examination of this unhappy affair 
that Grieve and his confederates have brought against 
me, wilt see that I am the victim of a plot to ruin 



me. 



I never emigrated, and I never intended to. 

"The use that I made of the two hundred thousand 
livres that d'Escourre placed for me with the Citizen 
Rohan'"" should prove this to the most prejudiced 
eyes. 

"I never furnished money to the emigres, and I 
never carried on any criminal correspondence with 
them ; and if circumstances compelled me to see, either 
in London or in France, courtiers or persons who were 

"Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 241. 
*^The Due de Rohan-Chabot, 



364 MADAME DU BARRY 

not in sympathy with the Revolution, I hope, Citizen 
Public Prosecutor, that thou wilt, in the justice and 
equity of thine heart, take into consideration the cir- 
cumstances in which I found myself, and my known 
and forced liaison with the Citizen Brissac,^' whose 
correspondence is before thine eyes. 

"I rely on thy justice : thou canst rely on the eternal 
gratitude of thy consitoyenne (sic)/'^ 

The estimable Fouquier was not quite so well known 
at this period as he became in the following spring, 
when the star of Robespierre was in the ascendant and 
the guillotine was mowing down Royalists and Hebert- 
ists and Dantonists at the rate of a hundred a week, or 
poor Madame du Barry would have been aware that 
she had no mercy to expect at his hands. He threw 
her appeal unread into a portfolio in which he kept 
the letters and papers he did not wish to attend to, and, 
harassed as he was by the importunities of Grieve, 
hurried on the trial. On December 4, the ex-favourite 

" It is not clear what Madame du Barry meant by her forced 
liaison with Brissac, and M. Vatel is of opinion that, in her hurry 
and agitation, she must have omitted several words. 

" Cited in Memoir es de Favrolle, iv. 122. 

**In his Memoires, Dutens relates the following anecdote, a 
propos of Madame du Barry's imprisonment at the Concier- 
gerie : 

** Shortly before the Comtesse du Barry was guillotined, on 
December 8, 1793, an Irish priest found means to visit her at the 
Conciergerie and offered to save her, provided she could give 
him the amount which would be required for bribing the gaolers 
and paying the expenses connected with the journey. She in- 
quired if he could save two persons ; but he replied that his plan 
would only permit him to save one. * In that case,' said Madame 
du Barry, *I am willing to give you an order on my banker 
which will enable you to obtain the necessary amount ; but I pre- 
fer you to save the Duchesse de Mortemart rather than m5rself. 
She is hidden in a garret of such and such a house in Calais; 
here is an order on my banker; fly to her help.' The priest en- 
treated her to allow him to rescue her from the prison ; but, on 
perceiving that she was resolved to save the duchess, took the 
order, obtained the money, went to Calais, and brought the 



MADAME DU BARRY 365 

was transferred from Saint e-Pelagie to the Concier- 
g-erie, "the threshold of the scaffold," the walls of 
which were still stained with the blood of the victims 
of the September Massacres/^ and, at nine o'clock on 
the morning of the 6th, she and the three Vande- 
nyvers were brought before the Revolutionary Court. 

duchess out of her hiding place. Then, having disguised her as 
a common woman, he gave her his arm, and travelled with 
her on foot, saying that he was a good constitutional priest 
and married to this woman. Every one cried * Bravo,* and al- 
lowed him to pass. He then crossed the French lines at Ostend, 
and embarked for England with Madame de Mortemart, whom 
I have since seen in London/* — Memoires d'un voyageur qui se 
repose, iii. 115. 

M. Forneron, in his Histoire generate des Emigres, and the 
Goncourts, in their La Du Barry, accept this story; but M. Vatel, 
in spite of his strong predilection for Madame du Barry, declines 
to place any faith in it, at I'east in its original form. In the first 
place, he points out, the lady's banker was, like herself, under 
lock and key, and, in the second, escape from the Conciergerie 
was absolutely impossible. On the other hand, a Madame de 
Mortemart — not the duchess, but her sister-in-law — does appear to 
have been in hiding at Calais at this time, and he therefore thinks 
that what really happened was that th'e priest in question having, 
like a gallant Irishman, offered to attempt the impossible on 
behalf of the poor lady, she replied: "You cannot save me; try 
to save Madame de Mortemart.'* Even in this modified form, 
however, the anecdote still reflects credit on Madame du Barry. 




CHAPTER XXV 

I HE Revolutionary Court, which had been 
created in the previous March, in spite of the 
strenuous opposition of the Girondins, to judge 
without appeal conspirators against the State, still re- 
tained all the forms of justice — it was not until June 
1794 that the hearing of counsel and calling of wit- 
nesses were dispensed with — but its proceedings were, 
in the great majority of cases, a hollow farce. The 
judges were appointed from the ranks of the most 
ruthless Terrorists, the jurymen, nominated by the 
Convention, were all ^^gens d' expedition/' while, as to 
give evidence on behalf of an accused person was to 
incur the danger of sharing his fate, witnesses for the 
defence could with difficulty be induced to come for- 
ward. Appalling indeed is the record of the Revolu- 
tionary Court. From the time of its institution in 
March 1793 to its reorganisation on June 10 of the 
following year it condemned to death 1259 persons, 
and after June 18, 1794, in seven weeks it sent 1368 
persons to the guillotine."^ 

Such was the tribunal before which Madame du 
Barry and the Vandenyvers appeared that dark Decem- 
ber morning. Dumas occupied the president's seat,, 
assisted in his deliberations by three other judges, 
David, Denisot, and Bravet; the infamous Fouquier, 
of course, prosecuted; while upon the jury were 
Topino-Lebrun, the painter, Robespierre's satellite, 

* For a full account of this famous — or rather infamous — court, 
see M. Henri Wallon's fine work, Histoire du Tribunal revolu- 
tionnaire (Paris: 1880-1882, 6 volumes). 

366 



MADAME DU BARRY 367 

Payan, and Sambat and Trinchard, who had been 
members of the jury which had condemned Marie An- 
toinette. Chauveau-Lagarde,whohad defended Brissot, 
Charlotte Corday, and the Queen, represented the 
Vandenyvers; Lafleuterie, Madame du Barry. 

The Bulletin du Tribunal revolutionnaire contains 
no account of the trial, but we have, in its place, a 
document of incontestable value in the shape of the 
notes taken by Fouquier-Tinville, who wrote with ex- 
traordinary rapidity, and jotted down all the answers 
given — he did not trouble to transcribe the questions — 
and has also left us a verbatim copy of his own 
speeches for the prosecution. 

The jury having been sworn, the president turned to 
the accused and demanded their names, ages, profes- 
sions, and places of birth and residence, to which they 
gave the following answers: 

"Jeanne Vaubernier, separated wife of Du Barry, 
aged forty-two years,'' born at Vaucouleurs, residing 
at Louveciennes." 

"Jean Baptiste Vandenyver, aged sixty-six, banker, 
born at Amsterdam, residing at Paris, Rue Vivienne." 

"Edme Jean Baptiste Vandenyver, aged twenty-nine, 
banker, born at Paris, residing in the same street." 

"Antoine Auguste Vandenyver, aged thirty-two, 
banker, born at Paris, residing here, also in the Rue 
Vivienne." 

The grefder then read the indictment, and Fouquier 
rose to open the attack. 

After detailing the various steps which had been 
taken against the accused, the seizure of their papers, 
their interrogatories, and so forth, and a piquant ac- 
count of the career of Madame du Barry at the Court 
of Louis XV., the prosecutor declared that the exami- 
nation of the documents found at Louveciennes proved 
'She was, of course, fifty, having been born August 29, 1743. 



S6S MADAME DU BARRY 

that "the Aspasia of the French Sardanapalus" had 
been the instrument and accomplice of emigres, and 
the support and protector of those aristocrats who had 
remained in France; and he mentioned the unfortu- 
nate Abbe de la Roche-Fontenille as having- found an 
asylum with her. He declared that, in her desire to 
render assistance to the emigres, she had invented a 
robbery of diamonds in the night of January lo-ii, 
1 79 1 f that this pretended robbery was a pretext con- 
cocted with Forth, an English agent, to place her in 
communication with all the anti-Revolutionary agents 
in London ; that during her four visits to London she 
had lived only with emigres and English aristocrats 
hostile to the Revolution, particularly with *'the in- 
famous Pitt, that implacable enemy of the human 
race," and that she had brought back with her "a 
medal bearing the effigy of the monster." He declared 
that her purse was at the disposal of all the rebels in 
France ; that she had advanced a sum of 200,000 livres 
to Rohan-Chabot, possessor of large estates in La 
Vendee, "the present centre of rebellion"; 200,000 
livres to La Rochefoucauld, former Bishop of Rouen, 
and large amounts to the Chevalier d'Escourre, his 
nephew, Labondie, and other disaffected persons. He 
declared that it had been her intention to make her 
house into "a little stronghold," which was proved by 
the fact that several guns had been found upon the 
premises. He spoke of the treasures which she had 
concealed and of the collection of anti-revolutionary 
pamphlets and engravings discovered at Louveciennes ; 
declared that she had worn mourning in London for 

'When Fouqui'er said this, he lied deliberately, as he had before 
him all the proofs of the robbery, and, in particular, a deposition 
of the spy Blache, admitting that he had seen the stolen jewels 
at the Lord Mayor's Court in London, no doubt when the jew- 
eller Rouen was identifying them. This fact, needless to say, 
was not disclosed at the trial. 



MADAME DU BARRY 369 

the late King, and had carried on a constant corre- 
spondence with the most bitter enemies of the Repub- 
lic: Calonne, Brissac, Maussabre, Mortemart, Nar- 
bonne, and many others. 

Passing to the Vandenyvers, he described them as 
the intermediaries between the Du Barry and the 
emigres. He accused them of having sent the dia- 
monds of the Du Barry to Holland; of having pro- 
vided her during her visits to England with several let- 
ters of credit, one for £50,000 and another ''for an 
unlimited amount" ; of having advanced the loans for 
Rohan-Chabot and La Rochefoucauld, and all the 
money wherewnth their client had provided the emigres. 
He declared that they had been "at all times the ene- 
mies of France," and in 1782 had been concerned in 
a vast plot to ruin the credit of the country and "per- 
petuate the slavery of the French," and ended by ac- 
cusing them of being ''chevaliers du poignard/' and 
of having co-operated "in the massacre of the people."* 

He then proceeded to call his witnesses, beginning 
with Grieve, who deposed that he had found, hidden in 
various parts of the chateau and grounds at Louve- 
ciennes, a quantity of precious stones, gold and silver, 
portraits of Louis XV. (as a Carmelite friar), Anne 
of Austria, and the Regent d'Orleans, and a medal 
bearing the likeness of Pitt. He added that an En- 
glish spy, named Forth, made frequent journeys be- 
tween London and Louveciennes, previous to the out- 
break of war; that the general opinion in the village 
was that the robbery had never taken place; and that 
the accused had obtained her passports under false 
pretences, as so far from her jewels being the only 

* Apparently, the only foundation for this last charge was a 
statement of Heron that the elder Vandenyver had fired at him 
with a gun during the disturbances which followed the storming 
of the Tuileries on August 10, 1792. 



370 MADAME DU BARRY 

security of her creditors, as she had stated in her let- 
ter to the President of the Convention/ she was pos- 
sessed of "immense treasures, valued at ten to twelve 
million livres," lived in most luxurious style, and kept 
forty servants. He also stated that she had placed 
obstacles in the way of recruiting at Louveciennes, 
and gave evidence concerning the papers found at her 
house. 

Xavier Audouin, attached to the Ministry of War, 
deposed that some days after the events of August lo, 
1792, while patrolling with an armed force the en- 
virons of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, information was 
brought him that the Chateau de Louveciennes was 
"full of ci-devant noblemen of the Court" ; that he had 
repaired thither and questioned the mistress of the 
house, who offered him refreshments and denied that 
there was any person concealed on her premises ; that, 
her manner appearing to him suspicious, he had broken 
into a room, which she had assured him was a linen- 
closet, and found there Maussabre, Brissac's aide-de- 
camp, whom he arrested and removed to prison. 

Jean Baptiste Blache, commissary of the Committee 
of General Security, stated .that he formerly resided in 
London, where he had seen the accused in the com- 
pany of various emigres and the supposed English spy, 
Forth. After the death of "Capet," the Du Barry 
wore mourning, ''avec le plus grand faste anglais'' 
and attended all the memorial services. 

Dumas, vice-president: "What answer have you to 
make to the evidence of this witness?" 

Madame du Barry: "I wish to say that I certainly 
saw in London Mesdames de Calonne and Mortemart, 
but that our relations were merely those of friendship." 

Dumas: "Did you wear mourning in London for 
Capet?" 

° See p. 339> supra. 



MADAME DU BARRY 371 

Madame du Barry: "1 wore a black dress, because 
I had brought dresses of no other colour with 
me. 

The next witness was a friend, the Chevalier 
d'Escourre, who was brought up from La Force, and 
courageously endeavoured to take upon himself the 
responsibility of the loan to Rohan-Chabot, stating 
that, being aware that Madame du Barry was desirous 
of finding an investment for the money, he had sug- 
gested the mortgage in question.' 

When the chevalier had concluded his evidence, 
Fouquier-Tinville rose and demanded that the witness 
should be at once removed from La Force to the Con- 
ciergerie and brought to trial. His request was grant- 
ed, and poor d'Escourre, condemned for "practising 
machinations against the Republic," was executed on 
December 11. 

Then commenced the evidence of the treacherous 
servants and the other witnesses whom Grieve had 
recommended. 

The thievish Salanave, now a member of the revolu- 
tionary committee of Versailles, spoke to the visits of 
Brissac, Labondie, d'Escourre, the Marquise de Bru- 
noy, and other aristocrats to Louveciennes, and added 
that, ''in his quality of patriot," he had been badly 
treated by his fellow servants, and, finally, dismissed 
by his mistress. 

Madame du Barry, when asked if she had anything 
to say to the evidence just given, informed the court 
that the dismissal of Salanave was due, not to his 
political opinions, but to his unfortunate weakness for 
her porcelain, "which disappeared daily." 

® This was no doubt true, as she was in mourning for Brissac. 

'It should be mentioned that the loan to Rohan-Chabot was a 
duly executed mortgage on the duke's estates in Brittany, bear- 
ing interest at four and a half per cent., and that the court had 
the deed in its possession. 



372 MADAME DU BARRY 

Louis-Benoit Zamor, native of Bengal, stated that he 
had been brought up by the accused since the age of 
eleven; that her house was frequented by aristocrats, 
who rejoiced openly over the checks which the armies 
of the Republic sustained; that he had remonstrated 
with the accused on the folly and wickedness of her 
conduct ; but that, so far from following his sage coun- 
sels, she had, on learning of his connection with Grieve, 
Blache, and other patriots, ''informed him, in an im- 
perious tone, that she gave him three days to leave 
her house."* 

Jean Thenot, schoolmaster at Louveciennes, formerly 
in the service of Madame du Barry, deposed that, in 
1789, at the time of the murder of Foulon, he had 
heard the accused declare that the people were "a pack 
of wretches and villains." 

The Accused J interrupting the witness: "Where did 
you hear me make such a remark?" 

The Witness: "It was while going to your melon- 
house." 

The Accused: The charge is false; it is an atrocious 
lie." 

Two of Madame du Barry's femmes-de-chambre 
were the next witnesses, one of whom stated that she 
had accompanied her mistress on her visits to London, 
and that while there she was frequently visited by 
French emigres; while the other declared that the 
night after the arrest of Brissac was spent by the ac- 
cused in burning papers. 

Madame du Barry gave a flat denial to this last 
allegation, after which the court adjourned till the fol- 
lowing day. 

^ Zamor's treachery did not benefit him much. Soon after the 
trial he was arrested as an accomplice of the woman he had 
denounced, and, though r'eleased, appears to have led a wretched 
existence. He died in great poverty in 1820. 



MADAME DU BARRY 373 

On December 7 (Frimaire 17), further witnesses 
for the prosecution were called, the most important of 
whom was one Nicholas Fournier, surveyor of build- 
ings, and formerly juge de paix for the canton of 
Marly, who deposed that he had examined the articles 
found by Grieve in various parts of the grounds of 
the accused, and that amongst them were a watch- 
chain, an opera-glass, and a pencil-case, all of which 
objects had been advertised as forming part of the 
property stolen on the night of January 10, 1791. 

This evidence, of course, went to strengthen the con- 
tention of the prosecution that the robbery had never 
taken place; but Madame du Barry explained to the 
court that the objects in question had been sold by the 
thieves ere leaving France, and subsequently restored 
to her. 

Of evidence for the defence there was none. Two 
important witnesses had been summoned: Boileau, 
who had suspended Madame du Barry's arrest in the 
previous June, and Chaillau, a member of the admin- 
istration of Versailles; but both, by a curious coinci- 
dence, were confined to their beds by severe illness, 
and sent certificates of their inability to attend, much, 
we may presume, to the chagrin of the amiable Fou- 
quier, who had no doubt hoped to make them incrim- 
inate themselves.* Lafleuterie for Madame du Barry, 
and Chauveau-Lagarde for the Vandenyvers^" "com- 
bated vigorously" (according to the latter advocate's 
account) the charges against their clients, and then 
Fouquier rose to reply, and in the grotesque jargon 

^ E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 309. 

" In the course of some questions put to the elder Vandenyver 
by Dumas, it transpired that the letter of credit "for an unlim- 
ited amount " mentioned by Fouquier in his opening speech, was 
a request to Thellusson to furnish Madame du Barry with "any 
small sums " which she might happen to require. _ The letter of 
credit for £50,000 had no 'existence, save in the imagination of 
the Public Prosecutor. 



374 MADAME DU BARRY 

which at this period passed for eloquence proceeded to 
harangue the admiring jury as follows : 

''Citizen Jurors, — You have passed sentence on the 
wife of the last tyrant of the French ; you have now to 
pass sentence on the courtesan of his infamous prede- 
cessor. You see before you this Lais celebrated by the 
deprivation of her morals, the publicity and the scan- 
dal of her debaucheries, whom libertinage alone en- 
abled to share the destinies of the despot who sacrificed 
the blood and treasure of his people to his shameful 
pleasures. The scandal and opprobrium of her eleva- 
tion, the turpitude and disgrace of her infamous pros- 
titution, are not, however, matters to which you must 
now give your attention. You have to decide if this 
Messalina," born among the people, enriched by the 
spoils of the people, who paid for the opprobrium o£ 
her morals, fallen by the death of the tyrant from the 
position in which crime alone had placed her, has con- 
spired against the liberty and the sovereignty of the 
people; if, after being the accomplice and the instru- 
ment of the libertinage of kings, she has become the 
agent of tyrants, nobles, and priests against the French 
Republic. The trial, citizen jurors, has already thrown 
the clearest light on this conspiracy. You know what 
revelations the depositions of the witnesses and the 
documents have furnished concerning this execrable 
conspiracy, to which the annals of nations can afford 
no parallel ; and assuredly never has an affair of more 
importance been presented for your decision, since it 
offers you, in a fashion, the principal link in the plots 
of Pitt and his accomplices against France. 

"... Such, citizen jurors, is the result of the trial 
which has taken place. It is for you, in your wisdom, 

"Fouquler had at first written "femme"; but he struck it out 
and substituted the name of the Roman Empress. He had al- 
ready compared Madame du Barry to both Aspasia and Lais ! 



MADAME DU BARRY 375 

to weigh the evidence. You see that royalists, feder- 
aHsts, all the factions, though divided among them- 
selves in appearance, have all the same centre, the 
same object, the same end. The war abroad, that in 
La Vendee, the troubles in the South, the insurrection 
in the Department of Calvados, all have the same prin- 
ciple and the same head ... all march under the 
orders of Pitt. But the veil which covered so many 
iniquities has been, in some degree, lifted — one may 
say to-day that it has been rent asunder — and nothing 
remains for the conspirators, save disgrace and the 
punishment of their infamous plots. Yes, Frenchmen, 
we swear it ; the traitors shall perish, and liberty alone 
survive. She has resisted and will resist all the efforts 
of the allied despots, their slaves, their priests, and 
their infamous courtesans. . . . The vile conspiratrice 
who stands before you was able to live in the lap of 
luxury, acquired by her shameful debauchery, in the 
midst of a country which appeared to have buried, 
with the tyrant whose companion she had been, the 
remembrance of her prostitution and the scandal of 
her elevation. But the liberty of the people was a 
crime in her eyes; she required it to be enslaved, to 
cringe to its masters, and the best of the substance of 
the people was consecrated to her pleasures. This 
example, joined to many others, proves more and 
more that libertinage and evil morals are the greatest 
enemies of liberty and the happiness of peoples. In 
striking with the sword of the Law a Messalina 
guilty of a conspiracy against the country, not only 
will you avenge the Republic for her outrages upon 
it, but you will uproot a public scandal and strengthen 
the empire of that morality which is the chief founda- 
tion of the liberty of peoples." 

Fouquier, unfortunately, did not think it worth 
while to take down Dumas's summing-up; but, from 



37^ MADAME DU BARRY 

a memorandum left by Chauveau-Lagarde, we learn 
that the charges against Madame du Barry which the 
jury were called upon to consider, were as follows : 

"Accused of conspiring against the French Republic 
and having favoured the success of the arms of the 
enemies in its territory by procuring for them ex- 
orbitant sums in her journeys to England, where she 
herself emigrated. 

"Wearing, in London, mourning for the late 
King. 

"Living habitually with Pitt, whose effigy she wore 
on a silver medal. 

"Having caused to be buried at Louveciennes the 
letters of nobility of an emigre and also the busts of 
the former Court. 

"And, finally, having wasted the treasures of the 
State by the unbridled extravagance in which she had 
indulged before the Revolution, during her commerce 
with Louis XV." 

The Vandenyvers were charged with being "the ac- 
complices of her machinations." 

It was a quarter to ten at night when the jury re- 
tired to consider their verdict. 

They were absent from court an hour and a quarter 
— fifteen minutes longer than they had required to de- 
cide upon the fate of Marie Antoinette — and, on their 
re-entry, returned "an affirmative answer" on all 
counts of the indictment against the former favourite, 
and the same in regard to the charge against the 
bankers. 

Fouquier at once demanded the full penalty of the 
law; and "the court condemned Jeanne Vaubernier, 
wife of Du Barry, ci-devant courtesan; Jean Baptiste 
Vandenyver, Edme Jean Baptiste Vandenyver, and 
Antoine Auguste Vandenyver to the penalty of death, 
and ordered that the present sentence should be exe- 



MADAME DU BARRY I'j^ 

cuted within twenty-four hours on the Place de la 
Revolution of this town."" 

The wretched woman heard the terrible sentence 
with cries of despair, and was carried back to the 
Conciergerie in a half -conscious condition. It has 
been stated that, in the hope of obtaining a respite, 
perhaps even a commutatipn of her sentence, she de- 
nounced at random a great number of persons; and 
Louis Blanc, in his Histoire de la Revolution frangaise, 
has gone so far as to give us the exact total of her vic- 
tims, which he places at two hundred and forty !^ 
Such an assertion, we need hardly observe, is a mere 
fable, and quite unworthy to find a place in an authori- 
tative work. What poor Madame du Barry actually 
did was to purchase a few short hours of life by re- 
vealing to Denisot and Claude Roger, the deputy- 
Public Prosecutor, the whereabouts of a considerable 
quantity of gold and silver plate and jewellery, which 
she had concealed in her garden, and which had hither- 
to escaped the prying eyes of Grieve^ and his confed- 
erates. In so doing, she, unfortunately, admitted that 
in concealing certain articles she had been assisted by 
her faithful valet-de-chambre, Morin, and a woman 
called Deliant; and the former was subsequently 

^^Of the judicial murderers of Madamfe du Barry, four per- 
ished by the guillotine within eighteen months,_ Dumas and Payan 
sharing the fate of Robespierre, in the f olowing July, while the 
Public Prosecutor and another member of the jury, named 
Vilate, followed them to the scaffold in May 1795. Topino- 
Lebrun, who took notes of the evidence which are preserved in 
the Archives, was involved in a conspiracy against the life of 
Napoleon, and executed on January 7, 1801. 

^*Vol. X. p. 236. 

^* This miscreant appears to have continued his denunciations 
until some months after the fall of Robespierre, when he was 
arrested at Amiens and twenty-two depositions taken against him. 
He was, however, acquitted, and in 1796 returned to America, 
where he published a translation of the Marquis de Chatellux's 
Travels. Eventually, he settled in Brussels, and died in that 
city on February 22, 1809. 



Z7^ MADAME DU BARRY 

brought to trial and executed, while the latter, whose 
husband, arrested with her, had died in prison, com- 
mitted suicide. Morin, however, was already in cus- 
tody, and would, very probably, have shared his un- 
happy mistress's fate in any case. 

For three hours a clerk was occupied in taking down 
the inventory of the hidden treasure, for every word 
she spoke added a second to her life; and the declara- 
tion terminated with an offer to write to London for 
her jewels, if such were the desire of the Court, "as 
she could without difficulty recover the property of 
which she had been robbed, on payment of the costs 
of the action."^^ 

But those men, "drunk with the blood of a King,'* 
were pitiless; she who had been so merciful to others 
could obtain none herself — in this world at least — and 
scarcely had the poor lady, with trembling fingers, 
affixed her signature to the declaration than a gaoler 
entered to cut her hair and inform her that the tumbril 
— "the bier of the living," as Barrere cynically called it 
— was at the door. 

On the way to the scaffold, whither she was accom- 
panied by the Vandenyvers and Jean Noel, the brave 
and upright deputy for the Vosges, whose opposition 
to the Terrorists had cost him his life," Madame du 
Barry displayed, we are told, great cowardice, though 
authorities differ as to the form which this cowardice 
took. According to the sensational account given by 

" Madame du Barry's jewels remained in Ransom's bank until 
the end of the following year, when they were sold by order of 
the Court of Chancery. The proceeds of the sale, which realised 
13.300 guineas, appear to have been paid over to her niece, 
Madame de Boissaisson, and some of the countess's creditors. 

" It was Jean Noel who declined to vote at the trial of Louis 
XVI., on the ground that, as his son had fallen in a war for 
which he regarded the King as being directly responsible, he 
could not hope to be an impartial judge. 



MADAME DU BARRY 379 

the Goncourts, which is based on some Souvenirs of 
the Revolution pubHshed in La Nouvelle Minerva, she 
uttered heartrending cries, offered to give all her 
wealth to the nation in return for her life — it had al- 
ready been confiscated by decree of the Revolutionary 
Court — implored the bystanders to save her, and strug- 
gled so violently that the executioner and his two as- 
sistants had the greatest difficulty in preventing her 
springing from the cart. On the other hand, the 
account given in The Gentleman's Magazine for 1793 
represents her as having been in a state of such pros- 
tration that "the executioner was under the necessity 
of supporting her in his arms the whole way;" while 
it is to be remarked that the Terrorist journals, Le 
Glaive vengeur, Les Revolutions de Paris, and the rest, 
though ever ready to gloat over the sufferings of the 
condemned, make no mention of any such scene as the 
one described by the Goncourts. 

About her behaviour when actually upon the scaffold 
there is more unanimity of opinion. Then she is de- 
scribed as resisting the executioners with all her feeble 
strength, and when overcome and forced on to the 
plank, entreating them not to hurt her, and begging 
for "one moment more." " 

" Here is an account of the tragedy, which, though second- 
hand evidence, bears the unmistakable stamp of truth : 

" I was well acquainted with a French g'entleman, recently dead, 
who was an involuntary witness of the execution [of Madame 
du Barry], and who has often given me details of it. He 
was then a lad of about seventeen, and had be'en riding with 
a friend of his in the environs of Paris. On their return through 
the Champs Elysees, they found themselves in the Place Louis 
XV. [Place de la Revolution, ci-devant Louis XV.] surrounded 
by a dense mob and the guillotine in full operation. His first 
impulse was to spur ^ his horse and avoid the horrid sight, but 
he was checked by his friend, who was more prudent and alive 
to the dang'er, for the crowd had already begun to grumble and 
to cry 'Gare aux aristocrats!' So they were forced to pull up 
their horses and remain silent spectators of the horrid tragedy. 
He said her shrieks were dreadful to hear; she struggled with 



38o MADAME DU BARRY 

But the fall of the fatal knife put an end to her 
anguish, and to the long line of left-hand queens of 
France.^ 

the executioners, and they were near enough to hear her ex- 
claim, *Ah, Monsieur, ne faites pas du mal* or ' Vous alles me 
faire du mat* — ^he was not sure which. The scene over, they 
were forced to take off their hats and shout with the rest, ' Vive 
la Republique!' It was not without difficulty that they got safe 
to their homes. He soon afterwards entered the army and so 
escaped ; he told me he had often since dreamt of the cries. He 
had no vivid recollection of her person.** — Manuscript of John 
Riddell, cited by Cunningham in his edition of Horace Walpole's 
Letters. 

*® About five weeks after Madame du Barry had been guillo- 
tined in Paris, the "RouS" was executed at Toulousfe. After his 
flight from Paris, in May 1774, Jean du Barry had resided at 
Toulouse, where Arthur Young, the celebrated traveller, found 
him living in opulence, and was so charmed with a portrait of 
his sister-in-law which he saw at his house that he felt he could 
pardon Louis XV. his infatuation for such a beauty. When the 
Revolution came, the "Roue" embraced the new ideas and raised 
and equipped an armfed force, of which he was appointed second 
colonel. Having got into debt, however, he was obliged to hide 
from his creditors, and was denounced as an intended emigre. At 
his trial,^ he refused to plead, remarking that the few years left 
him to live — ^he was then about seventy — ^were not worth arguing 
about He died with courage and resignation. 



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